I’ve spliced together two clips from yesterday afternoon’s session of the Legislative Assembly proceedings to contrast the essential difference in how Liberals and Conservatives understand the role of government in ensuring a vibrant and just economy: one from the Premier and one from Brad Trivers. They were both speaking to a self-serving Motion by the Liberal government to “Recognize the Strength of the Provincial Economy.”
The Premier boasted at one point that the PEI economy is “RED” hot because of Liberal policy, but he neglected to mention how our red hot economy is also structurally unfair and “burning” a whole lot of hard-working Islanders.
Brad Trivers did a great job of explaining how it may be true that the economy appears to be doing well, but unfortunately, much of the wealth being generated by our booming economy is not benefiting an increasing number of Islanders, but demanding that they work longer and harder only to become poorer than they were before.
A PEI Progressive Conservative approach to governance would stimulate the economy by encouraging the growth of small businesses, but at the same time ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth through higher wages to workers, which would lift thousands of Islanders out of poverty and not just further enrich a handful of the wealthiest Island families who are currently the preferred (and all–too frequent) recipients of multi-million dollar loans and grants from the Liberal government.
Trivers explains how we can have an “economy on a tear” that – as he put it – “..rips the fabric of society apart,” creating a widening gap between a growing number of poor Islanders, and a shrinking number of people who are getting richer and more powerful.
A Progressive Conservative approach to governance would stimulate economic activity with lower taxes for small businesses – as well as higher wages for workers – which businesses would be able to pay by not having to give so much tax to government.
Wealth shouldn’t be siphoned from workers by government in the form of constantly increasing fees and taxes,only to be then funnelled into the hands of the most powerful – simply because they are the most powerful, and can hire people to work at wage rates that don’t allow those workers to even afford their basic needs from month to month!
Premier MacLauchlan loves to talk about the “Debt–to-GDP” ratio, but as I explained in plain language in my Guardian Guest Opinion published on December 11, 2017 titled “Relying on the GDP is Unethical,” [https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/…/opinion-why-relying-on-gdp-…] the Debt to GDP method of measuring the health of an economy is not only seriously flawed, but flawed in favour of benefiting the economic elite, e.g., banks and corporations, not ordinary citizens.
The premier really has to start acknowledging how his use of those economic indicators is both misleading and deceptive and start addressing the “Wealthy-to-Poor” ratio which Liberal economic policies are worsening within PEI.
The Liberal government here in PEI is so much like the former Liberal government that was so recently soundly trounced in the election in Ontario. In both provinces they bamboozle the public with obscure or outdated data that sounds like things are fine but when one reads the fine print it found to be misleading if not outright lies. The PEI Liberals are, in a way, even worse than the Ontario Liberals in that they seem to be pandering to individuals and businesses that would be considered “elite” while cutting out the everyday working voter from the ability to get ahead and make a decent living. The Ontario Liberals brought forth a few social programs for the poorer sectors of the society that would seem to relieve some of the cost of living in the province which, while it sounded like one could get ahead, actually set a person farther behind because of increased taxes and governmental costs, such as the Ontario Hydro debt relief not to mention the largest non-state debt in the world. One of their cockamamie solutions to try to balance a budget that was in worse shape than you’d find in a third world country was to sell off Ontario Hydro to private businesses. Ontario Hydro was a Crown Corporation owned and developed by the taxes of the population and the selling off of it’s assets was done without any public input. In my opinion this was a criminal act. The waste of tax payer money during the 15 years the Liberals ran Ontario is breathtaking.
Here in PEI we don’t have the same situation but in other ways we do. Here in PEI the Liberals are allowing the land base itself to be sold right out from under our very feet. Huge corporations and off shore investors are gobbling up acreage here in PEI at an alarming rate and all of it done in such a way as to make the process secret. As was written in the article previous to this one, finding out who owns what and how much is owned by certain individuals is being kept under wraps. Why? Who is going to benefit from this land grab? It’s very likely it’s not going to be the everyday Islander who benefits.
Lastly, my own pet peeve, why are the roads so terrible? It’s disgraceful. Why do they repave only one or two kilometres at a time? Who’s getting the most benefit from this patchwork way of maintaining the infrastructure that Islanders depend on?