As Brian Pallister settles in as the new leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, here are four items that should be on his short-term to do list.
First, if you go on his party’s web site there doesn’t appear to be a broad vision that articulates what the party stands for.
As our province is lacking a taxpayer-friendly vision for the role of the provincial government, here’s a free draft for Mr. Pallister or any other party needing a starting point:
“Our party believes Manitoba can excel by running a government that focuses on core services like health care and education, fixing roads and public safety rather than giving tax dollars to those seeking funding for luxury projects and non-essential services.
By focusing to essential services, we will save money. The savings will be used to reduce taxes and get the debt under control. Individuals will then be empowered to decide which groups receive their money. Lower, more reasonable tax rates will also leave entrepreneurs with more resources to expand their businesses and drive our economy forward.
Further, social assistance programs should be a ‘hand up,’ not a ‘handout’ and all government services should be transparent, accountable to the public and kept in check by competitive forces.”
Second, Mr. Pallister shouldn’t back down from tackling tough issues even if they’re a bit of a challenge to explain to the public.
For example, when the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a non-profit taxpayers watchdog group, started to push hard on exposing corruption on aboriginal reserves a couple years ago, we faced allegations of being ‘racist’ for daring to question why a chief of a small reserve was making more than the Prime Minister of Canada.
We kept exposing cases of wild salaries on reserves and went from a situation where no politician in Ottawa would talk about the problem, to the federal government tabling legislation to put reserve politicians’ salaries online. Clearly, we got the public on our side despite ridiculous rhetoric coming from some opponents.
Third, as Wayne Gretzky once said, to be successful you have to go not where the puck is, but where the puck is going to be. Thus, the Progressive Conservative Party needs to think about what Manitoba’s books are going to look like when the next election rolls around.
Last year our province’s debt increased by $50 per second and this year it is increasing by $47 per second. Three-and-a-half years from now things aren’t likely to be much better so there will likely be a growing public appetite to get the debt under control. His party should start tackling that issue now.
Finally, Mr. Pallister should run a party based on tangible solutions. Anyone can criticize the sub-par performance in our health care system or scoff at Manitoba lagging the country in national tests. But how would he fix those and other problems without simply throwing money we don’t have at the situation?
Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris released his party’s bold platform a full year ahead of his victory in the 1995 election. If Mr. Pallister starts telling Manitobans his vision sooner rather than later, he too will have more time to look like a serious Premier in waiting.
Colin Craig is the Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
