..and I always thought the idea of politics was to have an honest plan, and let the voters decide if they approve.

Well.. a few Conservatives are somewhat upset with the "sell-out" of ideals evident in the current budget. The response of many, is sadly predictable:

"A political party’s first and last job is to get elected."

-Stephen Taylor - A Blog on Canadian Politics

Really? And I always thought the idea was to have a plan based upon conviction, articulate it to the public, and allow them to choose if they agree.

The problem is that there is a sickening truth to the suggestion that you can't get elected based upon an honest conviction. Canadians don't want reality.. they want fantasy.. they want a life free of difficult decisions, where the state will always wipe your nose for you.. and, in the end, they get what they ask for, they get a middle-of-the-road government, whether it's Conservative or Liberal, who will never stick to conviction if the risk is losing power.

Well, I say screw that. A huge part of the current finanical crisis is the refusal to tell people what they need to hear - and instead, they were told what they wanted to hear.

Everybody wanted to own a house - so the government in the U.S., both Democrats under Clinton and Republicans under Bush, said, "Ok, so let everyone buy a house - ignore whether they can pay for it or not, prices will always go up, don't worry, be happy."

Investors wanted to be able to leverage themselves, not just 2 to 1 or 3 to 1, but 30 to 1, to take advantage of the never-ending double-digit investment returns in the market - I mean, even though I'm Lehman Brothers and I'm leveraging mortgage security 30 to 1, it's not like there's any risk, is there - I mean, mortgages are like cash in the bank.

GMC, Ford, and Chrysler kept selling cars that people weren't buying, while over and over again, they were getting the shit kicked out of them by Toyota, Nissan, Honda and others.. but did they take the hint? Did they change their marketing and production strategies to account for a changing world and domestic market? No freaking way - keep doing things they way we always have, don't worry, be happy.

And now - in Canada - while the economy suffers, and belt-tightening should be the rule of the day - do Canadians say, "Ask me how to help"? No - they moan and cry, "What are you going to do for me?".. the budget doesn't do anything to increase unemployment benefits, it doesn't do enough to pay someone else to look after my children, it doesn't do enough to pay for my education..

Message to the Canadian Public: If you demand weasels, you are going to get weasels. A poster on my last blog told me to "grow up" - I guess that meant - sell out. Well, no, I'm not going to "grow up". I'm going to continue to demand something better, and in my own involvement in Provincial politics, I'm going to continue to try and influence to make things better.. and if I never grow up, on my death-bed, I can say I tried to do the right thing. And as a legacy, that's good enough for me.