Liberals Will Become Fiscally Conservative

Only when the average taxpayer has only lint left in their pockets and purses but even then Dion and his cohorts would max out Joe/Jane public's Visa.....

Advice from the right: How Liberals can beat Harper
Party could outflank PM by becoming champions of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism, says Gerry Nicholls
April 08, 2007

I am not in the habit of giving the Liberals advice – mostly because they would never take it – but I have an idea to turn their fortunes around.

To regain their status as the "Natural Governing Party," the Liberals must become less like 21st-century liberals and more like 19th-century liberals.

What does that mean?

Well as any historian will tell you, 19th-century liberals stood for free trade, minimal government, and individual freedom.

Somewhere in the 20th century, however, liberalism got mixed up with socialism ultimately resulting in ... well, in Pierre Trudeau.

Also in the 20th century, anyone opposing big government, the encroaching welfare state and high taxes became known as "fiscal conservatives."

And here in Canada, these fiscal conservatives have never really had a political voice.

The old Progressive Conservative Party, for instance, was little different ideologically speaking from the pro big-government Liberal party. Even the new Conservative party, under Stephen Harper, has not offered a home to those conservatives who favour less government. Indeed, if anything, Harper is assembling a coalition that pointedly excludes fiscal conservatives.

Rather, he seems intent on assembling a coalition embracing two other political factions: Pro big-government Red Tories and Reform-style populists.

That's why his government has been tough on crime; but also bashes banks for ATM fees.

That's why he spends more on the military, but also restores funding to feminist groups.

That's why he targets tax cuts to families and truck drivers, but does next to nothing to help Bay Street. Harper, in effect, is in the process of creating not a conservative party, but what might be labelled a "Red Reform Party."

As a consequence, a void exists in our political system.

No major party is reaching out to the fiscal conservative constituency in this country – a constituency that wants less government, lower taxes and more economic freedom.

If the Liberals are smart, they will fill that vacuum by becoming the champions of both fiscal conservatism and social liberalism.

Whereas Harper's Red Reform Party calls for more government spending; the Liberals could call for less; whereas the Red Reform Party calls for targeted tax cuts; the Liberals could call for broad-based tax cuts. In other words, the Liberals could outflank the Tories on the right.

Could the Liberals (for years the party of big government) ever make such a philosophic about-face?

Of course they could. These are Liberals we are talking about, the masters of the philosophic flip-flop.

Once anti-GST, the Liberals are now pro-GST; once against free trade, they are now for free trade. And the Liberal party which, under Trudeau, spent the country into massive deficits, is the same Liberal party that also balanced the budget under Jean Chrétien.

The fact is, ideology has never mattered to Liberals. All that matters to them is winning.

And if they adopt fiscal conservatism, they will win.

Simply put, Canadians are growing sick and tired of a big and inefficient government, that's taking more and more of their money and delivering less and less in return.

The recent success of the right-of-centre Mario Dumont and the ADQ in Quebec, supposedly the most left-wing province in Canada, is testament to that.

Mind you, before the Liberals adopt such a strategy they will need to make one key adjustment: They must dump Stéphane Dion as leader.

The problem with Dion isn't that he is a dud charisma-wise, or that his English is abominable, or that he is a weak leader: His real problem is he is moving the party to the left of the political spectrum, in a blatant attempt to out-NDP the NDP.

In so doing, he is taking the party in the wrong direction.

What the Liberals need is a leader who, unlike Dion, understands that if we are going to compete in a the global economy, we will need lower taxes and more efficient, smaller government. It also needs a leader who will attract those increasing number of Canadians who simply want government to get out of their lives. Of course, the Liberals are free to reject my advice.

But if they do, I hope they enjoy sitting in the opposition benches, because they will be there for a long time.

Gerry Nicholls was vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition until last Wednesday.