February 4, 2008 by Craig
Alberta Premiere Ed Stelmach has called a provincial election for March 3. I already am quite sure who I’m voting for: Mike Robinson, Liberal Candidate for Calgary-Foothills.
I don’t know anything about Mike personally. I don’t know a heck of a lot about the Liberals either. I do know that what I’ve seen I don’t terribly like:
- Their theme is “The Conservatives don’t have a plan, we do.” They’re (publicly) assuming that the province needs fixing and that the government needs to take action. I don’t necessarily agree with either of these points.
- I also take issue with specific items in their platform:
- Health care premiums should stay. They’re easily affordable for anyone with a solid income. There’s already price reductions for lower incomes. The absurd employee demand means that nearly everyone can have an income that can support health care (rent on the other hand is another matter entirely). Eliminating health care premiums won’t create much economic value (it’ll just save the collection costs), but instead would shift the cost onto the tax base. What problem would that solve? The Liberals don’t say. It’s just a slogan.
- Electricity (and gas) rates aren’t unreasonably high; they’re a very minor portion of our overall expenses. I certainly don’t think they should be subsidized with tax money; the Liberals don’t say how else they would lower them. If anything, the rates should be higher, as that will give incentives to reduce demand and/or find alternative energy sources (which would help fight global warming). I don’t think there’s terribly good evidence to show that re-regulating the utilities would make them more efficient; I doubt that the existing “competitors” in the market are particularly regulation-free anyway.
- Investing royalties “now before its too late” is a straw man plus fear mongering. Is there some investment apocalypse that I’m not aware of? It’s not like royalty money is going to sit idle anyway; as the overall tax/royalty surplus grows it’ll either get spent (which is what the Liberals mean by “investing” anyway), invested in securities (which is basically what happens by default), or reduced through tax cuts (which is a very economically sound option).
- Providing hospitals and health care workers is a very good idea, but doing it “now” is exaggeration. You can start building & training now, but it won’t pay off for years.
I’m neutral on the greenhouse gas cap; it’s not necessarily the best solution, but it may be better than nothing at all, so if it’s achievable then it’s worthwhole.
So why vote Liberal? I’m not upset with the provincial Conservatives; by and large I agree with their policies, and I think they should stay in power. However, I think that any government works best when it’s kept in check. Harper’s minority government has, in general, played ball with the rest of the political spectrum because of the real threat of a non-confidence vote. They’ve effectively been prevented from screwing things up too badly. I’d like to see that sort of balance in Alberta too. The Liberals have very little chance of winning the province, but they’re the only ones who are any threat at all. Thus, I’ll support them as much as I can (without trying too hard of course; they’re not going to see a dime of my money). If in some bizzaro universe they actually stood a chance of winning the whole thing, I’d be more careful when placing my vote.