IN THE NEWS: No there, there

By Susan Riley, Citizen SpecialMarch 12, 2010

Remember when the economy was the most pressing issue facing the nation -- at least, according to Michael Ignatieff? So last week.

What has Liberals excited now is Rahim Jaffer's supposed sweetheart deal on drug charges and ongoing questions about the treatment of Afghan detainees -- allegations of complacency, collusion, cover-up, on the part of Conservative and Liberal governments. Oh, and prorogation. Still.

After a 6,000-word throne speech last week and a busy little budget filled with veiled threats and small treats, all the Liberal leader could come up with Thursday, by way of amendment, was a move to end "frivolous requests" for prorogation.

This limp riposte came after an exhaustive denunciation of the Harper government's lack of imagination on the economy, its gimmick-ridden budget, its "stunning silence" on health care, its "missed opportunities" on green energy and Jim Flaherty's pricey, post-budget flight to a Tim Hortons in London -- "the most expensive double-double in the history of Canada."

"There's no there, there," Ignatieff complained -- and, while he wasn't describing his own speech, he could have been. As usual, it offered only vague promises of a better, brighter Liberal future, details to come. As with the budget, Liberals now offer token resistance, but quickly fall into line. The tactic is already getting tired and could prove as fatal to their fortunes as provoking an unwanted election.

The next deadline for the long-promised policy "reveal" comes sometime after the party's thinkers conference in Montreal at the end of March. But the only real suspense is what new excuse Liberals' will come up with for keeping their ground-breaking agenda under wraps until the eve of the next election.

This is assumed to be smart strategy -- the story being that Liberals are bursting with great ideas, but don't want them stolen. But it looks more like confusion. This is especially true when ideas like high speed rail, or an east-west electricity grid, or national child care, are raised by the leader one day then rarely mentioned.

Ignatieff is hobbled by inexperience, but also by his centre-right instincts. On a range of issues, he seems to agree with government -- on the seal hunt, the oilsands, the harmonized sales tax, to name a few.

He is also compromised by his party's record -- particularly on the environment and the deficit. "We cleaned it (the deficit) up last time, we'll clean it up next time," he declared on Thursday. Heaven help us. This might not be a winning argument, considering that Paul Martin restored the country to surplus by cutting transfers to the provinces, damaging health care so badly it has yet to fully recover.

To an unfocused official opposition, add a demoralized and ignored public service and a risk-averse prime minister with a minimalist agenda, largely focussed on winding down his prosaic stimulus program then chipping away at the deficit.

It adds up to continuing policy drift with no fresh ideas, no sense of urgency, nothing to inspire pride in country the way the Olympics did. Everyone talks with animation about the New Economy, green technologies, the potential of India and China, an innovation agenda -- then goes chasing the latest $1,000 doorbell scandal or ministerial temper tantrum.

A noble exception is the NDP, which continues to offer detailed, practical remedies to pressing problems: more gas tax to municipalities for green infrastructure, an extension of the home reno program for energy retrofits, enhanced public pensions.

Layton opened question period on Thursday with questions on Harper plans to open telecommunications to foreign ownership. By contrast, Ignatieff led with yet another question on detainees -- an indirect reminder that he has no urgent quarrel with the Harper economic agenda.

Unfortunately for Layton, his party (politics, generally) is mired in outdated ideological stereotypes. No matter how huge their deficits, how faulty their predictions, Conservatives are somehow the party of fiscal rectitude. No matter how savage their cuts to social programs, how huge their income tax cuts, the Liberals are slave to big spending and Big Government. And, despite the frugality and policy innovation of countless provincial NDP governments, "socialists" are dismissed as unsound.

Ideology aside, we have been led, for decades, by a succession of dull, cautious, uninspiring, almost interchangeable, governments, Liberal and Conservative. They have been inching us to the right -- nervous about new social programs, eager to hand generous tax cuts to business and the middle class, ready to shop our economic treasures to any passing stranger.

And, again, we're facing a familiar choice: a centre-right leader who seems to know where he's going (even if he doesn't) and another who is fierce but directionless. In fact, if nothing changes, Harper looks set to climb to his cherished majority over Ignatieff's unconvincing protests.

Susan Riley writes on national politics. E-mail sriley.work@gmail.com

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