With a few pennies more
The current provincial campaign has been a budget bluster from start to finish (please, let it finish!). Each group out-promising to outspend the other. Each group just a little bit better able to put the finger on the pulse of our needs. Not nearly enough cash to do the job properly, but if there were just a few pennies more, miracles would happen.
The philosophy has had as foundation that we suffer from some sort of fiscal inequality here; the federal government has too much cash and all the poor provinces, with a couple of exceptions, have too little. The wizards all have ways of amending the formula, so that those in need will get just a bit of extra juice. Quebec has spend years decrying the need for change.
Until today. The premier-that-was today promised a huge tax rebate to all citizens. A rebate that would definitely bleed the new cash flow from Ottawa down to pre-election levels. More money for everyone. Except that the needs of education, health, infrastructure; in fact, just about everything else would remain as before.
Now I ask you, does this strike you as a coherent technique? Spending years with a constant cry for more cash, to spend on all the needs and then to promise a big tax break with those same new dollars. It strikes me as a big poker game, played with someone else’s wallet.
