NDP offers N.B. real leadership

Published Tuesday August 17th, 2010, Dominic Cardy, Telegraph Journal, Page A9

Shawn Graham received a lot of attention for a recent promise to create 20,000 jobs through tax cuts and unspecified spending. David Alward is campaigning on a promise to "end Shawn Graham's risky schemes." Neither offers specifics.

Pulling numbers out of thin air is not planning, it's hoping. And if there is one deficit New Brunswick suffers from that is more dangerous than the budget deficit, it is the deficit of hope in politicians, hope that they will do anything other than make things up.

The belief that our leaders are lying to us is corrosive and damaging our democracy. The more promises are broken, the faster cynicism grows. Politicians respond by trying harder and harder to get citizens excited about politics. So they make more promises, like 20,000 jobs out of thin air.

The Conservatives are campaigning on Mr. Alward. They say he can "get the job done," that "family and community have always played a vital role in his ability to lead" and, no doubt, he is very fond of kittens.

The idea that any party leader is nicer or more community-oriented than any other is close to irrelevant. It is hard to become leader of any political party without being interested in one's community, or without having proved that you could "get the job done" in some way, at some time. Talking like this sets up a situation where election campaigns become all about personalities, and nothing to do with making the province better.

If people have lost faith in your leadership, as the voters have in Shawn Graham, then you move on to promises. You promise nuclear reactors, tens of thousands of jobs, the rebirth of every industry that has ever died in New Brunswick and the magical conception of many more. This is the worst of politics, trading off broken promises by promising, next time, things will be different. It is the sort of line we have all heard from unreliable friends.

If there is nothing else on offer, voters will choose the less offensive leader and the least outlandish promise. But that's a depressing choice, and proves the Liberals or Conservatives have inherited little of the legacy left by Louis J. Robichaud or Richard Hatfield. You may not have liked where those leaders stood, but at least they stood for something.

When I talk to middle-class New Brunswickers, I hear the same thing over and over. They want to know: what sort of job are you, as a politician, going to do? How are you going to do it? How are you going to pay for it?

Saying "I have a vision," like Premier Graham, does not mean you have a vision. Saying David Alward has the "ability to lead" is not the same as being a leader. These are just words.

This election is a difficult one for New Brunswick. We are facing, but not yet submerged by, a financial tsunami caused by a combination of the global economic downturn and irresponsible choices by our past governments. By the time the next election rolls around, we will either be riding that wave, or crushed by it.

If our debt and deficit continue to mount, our government will have to choose between radical cuts to spending or insolvency. They will choose the cuts, and those cuts will come from health, education, and other programs that help struggling middle-class families make ends meet.

The NDP challenges the Conservatives and Liberals to dispute these facts. These are not problems that can be solved with promises. That's why, across the province, more and more people are deserting the Liberals and Conservatives to join the NDP.
Candidates like Julie Drummond in Hampton-Kings, who left the Conservatives, or Alida Fagan in Rogersville-Kouchibouguac, who left the Liberals.

The NDP will offer a very specific platform. We will not make promises we cannot keep. Our leader, Roger Duguay, is not claiming he alone will solve our province's problems.

Instead, we offer leadership from communities across New Brunswick. Not people making wild claims, or irresponsible promises, but candidates ready to acknowledge that there are hard and dangerous times ahead, and that we have to call on the best traditions of our province to set our priorities and prepare for the storm ahead.

That means concrete plans, not vague promises. So the NDP will cut MLA pensions. The NDP will end cash handouts to business, and replace them with tax credits for hiring new workers. The NDP will stand against cuts to front-line public service like health and education, while looking for every reasonable opportunity to improve efficiency in the public sector.

We will be restrained, and focused, and we will show that real leadership is in making a plan and sticking to it.

Dominic Cardy is the campaign director for the NDP. He can be reached at dcardy@nbndp.ca.