Two examples provincially and one about to create a story federally, show us that voters in this country need to be able to hold governments accountable.
Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley announced her party’s budget this week that attacks the oil and gas industry, a sector that’s already hurting because of low global prices. And the NDP is spending, spending, spending to the tune of $18.9 billion in debt this year and up to $47 billion by the time the election is called again in 2019. So much for Ralph Klein’s debt-less dynasty!
In Ontario, Premier Kathleen Wynne is facing police investigations, she’s introducing a payroll tax in the name of a retirement savings plan (the ORPP, which she said she wouldn’t introduce if Justin Trudeau was elected) as well as giving multi-million dollar payouts to unions.
In one Canadian province – British Columbia – and in some American states like California, Alaska, Minnesota and Washington, voters are able to collect signatures and if there’s enough of them, along with a judicial review, a politician can be subject to a recall election. But there has to be some form of misconduct – I think we’ve seen that in Ontario.
Now, the voters have given the Trudeau Liberals a majority government, basically a licence to do whatever they want for the next four years.
The opposition parties have no power to stop any of these governments – both provincial and federal. Given the modern-day fragility of the economy, a lot of damage can be done in two to three years. It’s time to give the voters the tool to at least keep the radical governments in check because the governmental system as it stands right now can not.
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