This is the most interesting U.S. election in recent memory, even more so than the election of Barack Obama as America’s first black president. Trump, Hillary, Bernie, Cruz…. A lot can happen in the seven-plus months left till Americans go to the polls, but one way or the other this election is going to be analyzed and talked about for decades to come.
There now seems to be at least a 50:50 split of pundit opinions that Trump will indeed be the GOP nominee and that he could defeat Hillary for president. Republican voters are angry at the “establishment” and see Trump as their champion for change.
Many traditional Democrats are also worried about jobs and the economy and are angry at their government. They don’t like Hillary and they see her as the Democrat establishment candidate of “more of the same,” which might cause enough of those angry Dems to vote for Trump to give him the win in November.
A recent article (Wall Street Daily, March 16) suggested the solution to keeping Trump and other nationalists at bay, especially the radical ones, is for “non-nationalist, non-socialist parties to take better care of their voters.” Unfortunately, they haven’t and it is getting rather late for those parties to turn things around now. If Trump wins, the Democrats will have to do a major housecleaning and radically revise their policy platform and modus operandi to reflect a renewed concern and respect for their citizens. That could only be good and may be the silver lining for the Democrats in a potential Trump win.
Similar renewal in Canada’s Conservative Party may give swing voters pause to consider voting Conservative again in the 2019 election. Meantime, we have to get through four years of governance by our centre-left Liberal Party and hold our collective breath that they will actually do a better job than past experience with them would indicate.
Their five months in office to date, however, has not inspired confidence. After inheriting a balanced budget, pundits were expecting at the time of this letter’s writing that Tuesday’s budget would include a deficit of $30 billion.
However, if most of the Liberals planned deficit spending is on productivity enhancements and infrastructure which leads to economic growth and more good jobs, then perhaps the return will justify the borrowing. But, if the bulk of the budget goes to the Liberal penchant for social engineering and program spending, they will only be digging Canada into a deeper hole that will be increasingly difficult to climb out of.
Regardless, it will have to be paid for, so we can expect an increase in our taxes and fees for everything, and perhaps also some serious downloading like the Chretien-Martin Liberals did in the ‘90s.
We do live in interesting times.
Rick Tone
Whitehorse