PLEASE, spare me salvation at the hands of another Liberal leader pledging a national infrastructure program.
Been there, done that; got the T-shirt; deja vu; old hat; political rhetoric at its finest.
Mind you, it’s a well-worn strategy that works, which is why federal Liberal boss Stephane Dion went down that worn but well-paved road last week in his struggle to find a political touchstone to boost his fortunes and unite his caucus in advance of the Harper Conservatives’ new budget next week.
Hard on the heels of a report last week outlining the age of infrastructure across Canada Nova Scotia’s is the oldest, naturally Dion took the opportunity to promise to spend any federal budget surplus on a new infrastructure program.
Nova Scotia is pegging our necessary renewal costs at a mere $8 billion, while a report from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities last November indicated a stunning $123 billion was required nationwide to bring our sagging infrastructure up to scratch.
Big numbers, eh?
This old shell game and the political wooing of municipal leaders and premiers across the country may well be useful to Dion, just as it proved extraordinarily useful to his two predecessors.
Surely, the strategy brought the greatest wave of political success for former prime minister Jean Chretien. Who could forget the Big Fix of the 1993 election campaign? (OK, so who even wants to remember it?)
That was the year that Chretien cannily stole an idea plank from Brian Mulroney, who had pledged a five-year, $2-billion plan in 1992.
But Mulroney and his finance minister, Don Mazankowski, had failed to deliver. And when Kim Campbell stepped in to take over the Tory reins, the promise to restart the frigid economy and find a way out the recession was up for grabs. Besides, all Chretien had to do was stick a snappy name on it the Big Fix, a stunning $6.5-billion over five years and viola, election victory was in the bag.
Of course, it took some five years for the thing to get rolled out in any sort of fashion. It required spending by three levels of government at one-third each. The Big Fix came complete with a prequel and a sequel, and the auditor general had to get involved, but it didn’t much matter. Before Canadians knew it, the infrastructure deficit was swelling again.
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