Promises, Promises

Isn't it amusing no end, the way the Liberals have accused the governing Conservatives of squandering the country's healthy economy to their agenda of spend-spend-spend. And using a good portion of the fiscal surplus to pay down the country's debt. The bounders. Yet, during this general election called so premptorily by the minority government, the parties competing for the electoral vote are promising the heavens above.

Stephen Harper, in a lengthy interview with John Iverson, said he was not prepared to promise any new spending initiatives that he felt the country could not afford. Accordingly, he hasn't broken the bank through election-fever promises, with his modest proposals. On the other hand, the Liberal Party, through its leader Stephane Dion, has engaged in a truly imaginative spending spree totalling $80-billion.

Now that's a breath-taking sum. If we had the wherewithal we could fly to the moon. Forget practicalities, behave as though we have the wherewithal and fasten your seat belts, we're on our way...! Stephane Dion promises lavish dollops of taxpayer-funded money to solve the nation's short-comings. The Liberals, when they had the opportunity on so many occasions, took the initiative to truncate social programs...but now here's Mr. Dion, ready to restore them to health.

From child-care support, to pharmaceuticals, hospitals, various health services and doctors, to immigration and funding for retrofitting buildings and homes for a greater remedial response to environmental degradation. Farmers, fisherfolk, foresters, no one will be left out of the Liberal's generosity and commitment to making Canada a more functional, definitely improved country.

As though scads of money is the cure-all for every problem a country faces in today's trouble-prone world of global interdependency, and the inevitable fall-out of the most powerful country's finances and economy sending confidence-destroying ripples everywhere. So that, at a time of fiscal unease, political-economic caution is a definite asset.

Yet the electorate is always forgetful of the fact that elaborate funding plans must come from somewhere, and it's their already-overburdened pocketbook, by and large. It's simply that the promises are so attractive, so seductive. Who wouldn't want to solve the ungovernable problem of our faltering health-care system?

On the positive side, the Conservative government has pledged a fair sum in support of assisted housing and poverty reduction. On the questionable side, it has cut back funding for culture and arts beyond what might be reasonable for a country that prides itself on its literature, theatre, music and plastic arts.

So that when Stephane Dion promises that a Liberal government would provide reliable funding in that arena, at an affordably modest cost, that is worth listening to. Some of the arts funding cuts through Canadian Heritage are obviously ill considered cost-cutting measures, and badly require re-visiting and remediation.

Canada has a vibrant arts community, a well-earned reputation in the arts and we need to continue supporting it. While most Canadians wouldn't argue against careful monitoring of where our cultural funding goes, and would choose to cut off so-called cutting-edge productions showcasing extremes of violence or bizarrely gratuitous sexual gratification choices, that requires selective, not wholesale cutting.

As for the Liberal claims of the Conservatives' agenda with respect to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, there may be some truth to that. There is no love lost between the CBC and the Conservatives. The CBC has had a deep-seated place in the Canadian landscape as a highly respected voice for Canadian cultural values. The older generation, those over the half-century mark, are loyal to a fault.

The pity is that the CBC, which should be a politically neutral venue whose function is to highlight the best of Canadian theatre, music and literature appears to have gone astray. It's become stridently left-leaning. The quality of its programming has deteriorated to an alarming degree. In-depth reportage is lamentably biased; the broadcast voice of Canada has dropped quality to the lowest quality denominator.

It has felt justified in its bid to drop its historical focus on classical music. It has also played a sadly diminishing role in bringing intelligent, informed discourse through the airwaves to the listening public. The broadcaster, wholly funded by the Canadian public, has chosen to abandon its traditional listening public in a bid to increase its audience among the young and the hip.

It has become a haven for mediocrity. It chooses to chase after an increased audience potential, offering lukewarm listening fare available through other, commercial-type broadcasters. The new head of CBC Radio can claim that the reason she personally values the Corporation is "I often find myself trapped in my car by something I had no idea I would be interested in."

While the CBC's traditional listening demographic would turn that around to bemoan the fact that they often find themselves in an expectation mode only to find themselves trapped by something they discover to be of completely no interest to them. More's the pity.

Still, we're hoping it isn't yet time to pull the plug of the $1.1-Billion yearly investment in programming reflective of traditional Canadian values. Trouble is, the venerable old CBC keeps insisting on disabusing us of our fond hopes.