Priorities matter

May 27

At the turn of the millennium, unlike many people, I find Canada an exciting country. Partly this is due to its multiethnicity. Walk down Robson Street in Vancouver and you can see restaurants serving the food from dozens of nationalities in just a few miles. In the same span you'll see a mind-boggling array of people with origins in every part of the world, freely strolling along and taking in the sights. As well, Canada is a stunningly beautiful place, as the drive from Edmonton to Vancouver reminds me every so often. We have our fiscal house in relative order, compared with other nations. We are civil and civilized. We are really very free. We are among the very first to discard old superstitions and shibboleths.

But the most exciting part is this. I'm a science enthusiast and have been all my life. I'm highly educated. And yet, I'm not unusual. Many in this country are tremendously well educated, from those with university degrees in the sciences, to those in the arts, medicine or business. Without minimizing it (I used to be a technician in the oil patch), there are also those that have technical school diplomas -- and need them -- to maintain our advanced cars or string together networks of computers. Walk into any bar, or visit any blog, and you can have an intelligent discussion on any subject, without necessarily agreeing with the other person.

Very few, if any, countries have all this going for them. Canada, in many ways, works. Even 50 years ago the things we do and professions we pursue would have been astonishing to our ancestors. And our children are, if anything, even more educated and will pursue even more exciting careers. We are, above all, a reasoning society.

So it is natural that we expect logical thinking in our political parties as well. In this we have been disappointed, from the gun registry fiasco to the current corruption scandal. We are no longer interested in vague "chicken in every pot" promises; that's so last century. You're going to reduce taxes and spend more on our priorities? Great! How? Are you going to improve the efficiency of government departments to free up money? How will do you that? And what about the priorities -- what are they? There's a lot of things competing for our attention: health care, highways, cities, aboriginals, immigration, law enforcement, the military, the environment, justice, Quebec, education and the rise of hate and terrorism (yes, even in Canada). What, exactly, are your priorities?

My columns until election day will be focused on this issue of precision. What are the parties' promises? How well formulated are they? What are their priorities? Where will they get the money? What are the obvious lies? Perhaps most important, what aren't they talking about? Canadians these days expect clear thinking, and deserve no less.