Budget

Well this is my first political post in a while.

Essentially I want to talk about the fiscal imbalance. I think it's a bit ridiculous for the provinces to complain about money. They are the ones that created this problem by cutting taxes so much in the 1990s. Yes federal coffers are bulging, however this was the plan, they decided to balance the books, and have done a really good job managing the federal treasury. Yes they did this in part by screwing the provinces.

However the real problem with Canadian federal provincial squabbling is about jurisdiction. The federal government has a lot of money, the issues that Canadians care about are mostly in provincial jurisdiction. Thats the cruz of the problem.

Harper has a solution, and I must say I like it better that Martin's plan (if he even had one). Essentially Harper is going to cut taxes at the federal level, reducing the pot of money the provinces complain about, and he is also going to reduce federal intrusion into the provincial jurisdiction. Essentially he is making the provinces more responsible. A lot of people complain about decentralization, but there is already a large degree of it in health care and education. The federal government has not been able to get any concessions out of the provinces in return for holding the purse strings anyways.

I think it will actually make for better federal provincial relations, especially if the provinces start working together (like Alberta and BC seem to be doing) on issues of mutual concern. The one thing it will also do is force provinces to be more accountable, they won't be able to bitch that Ottawa isn't helping them enough as much( though i know they'll still complain). I'm really curious to see what the full effect will be if he follows through in the way I think he will

Will it transform federal politics?, damn straight it will. Will it be bad for Canada? Well allI have to say about that is that, nothing Harper will do can be any worse than the ridiculous lack of focused policy of Paul Martin's Liberals.

I have to say that I believe that Paul Martin was the worst Prime Minister since I've been alive. (I admit freely however that there haven't been many PMs..)