EDITORIAL – All the noise in Ottawa drowns out substance of 2019 budget
Finance Minister Bill Morneau delivers his new budget. (Image: CPAC)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
IS THERE SOME SORT of contest going on in Ottawa over which party can make us more disgusted with politics?
There must be, judging by yesterday’s Kindergarten-level scrapping in the halls of power. On one side of the playroom, we have the Liberals, whose members of the Commons justice committee have taken their marbles and gone home, refusing to let Jody Wilson-Raybould return to talk to them a second time.
On the other are the sulking Conservatives, who one-upped the Liberals by spending much of the afternoon pounding desks and booing while Finance Minister Bill Morneau tried to deliver his budget speech.
Actually, he did deliver it; it’s just that nobody could hear it.
And then the Conservatives, all self-righteous, walked out. (To Jagmeet Singh’s credit, the NDP declined to participate in this circus.)
If the Tories had stuck around, they would have heard Morneau talk about some worthwhile measures in his 2019 budget: things like help for first-time home buyers, doubling of gas-tax transfers for municipal infrastructure projects, lowering the interest rate for the federal portion of Canada Student Loans and rebates on electric vehicles.
There were a few clunkers, like the promise to connect all Canadians to high-speed Internet by the year 2030. If I had a loonie for every time I’ve heard that one I’d have a good start on a TFSA.
And then there’s the grand promise of eliminating water-quality advisories on First Nations water systems in just two years. It’s certainly a worthy goal but the ridiculously short timeline suggests the Liberals have no idea about the extent of the problem.
But, hey, such details were pretty much lost in all the hooting and hollering and staged indignation yesterday. It was a total head-shaker.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Given that the Ottawa kindergarten has always behaved in pretty much the same way, I have no idea why people get indignant over the childish gang activities that are constantly on display. We, the citizens, should fire them all for cause, and not replace them with more of the same. We pretty much know that no matter the party in power the golden rule will apply … Whomever has the most gold will always make the rules.
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Given that the Conservatives have tried EVERY CONCEIVABLE MEANS of legitimate, legal, professional, courteous to ask questions and raise objections, only to be ignored by the puppet Trudeau and his minions, all of whom refuse to answer questions, what does the Armchair Mayor suggest the Conservatives SHOULD have done?
You criticize them for booing and shouting, but say nothing about the Liberals refusal to obey the laws of the land, refusal to answer reasonable questions, refusal to take responsibility for wrongdoing and refusal to even nod at a promised balanced budget.
Your blatant pro-Liberal bias does you no favours and wins you no kudos.
(Still love ya, though.)
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