Matthew Lau: The Liberal platform is for Liberal control-freaks

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Is the Liberal platform any good? The answer depends on what you think the platform is for. If the goal is to increase economic growth and improve standards of living, then their platform is preposterous. The Liberals are like a 650-pound man who exclaims that he is in excellent health and that the path to further improvement is to increase his consumption of chocolate cake in order to hit 700 pounds by next year. Despite the poor economic outcomes they have created, the Liberals proclaim that in fact they have governed splendidly and the only way to make things even better is to expand their program of increasing government obesity.

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Taking the latest fiscal projections from the Parliamentary Budget Officer as their baseline, the Liberals propose to escalate spending by another $78 billion over five years with more money for: government employees, university students, the CBC, free menstrual products, Indigenous programs, a “racialized artists” fund, electric vehicle subsidies, and the list goes on. Plus more regulation, higher taxes, and increased government economic planning of all kinds — in other words, the same interventionist policies that have failed both for the past six years in Canada and everywhere else they’ve been tried.

The Liberal program is not even a case of policies with good intentions and deleterious results. The good intentions are absent. It is a mistake, as financial economist John Cochrane explains in his insightful essay, “Understanding the Left,” to presume that progressives are interested in producing a free and prosperous society with widespread economic opportunity. All their policies on taxes, spending, and regulations are demonstrably counterproductive to achieving that goal, so it must be that they have a different goal in mind. As Cochrane points out, what all progressive policies have in common is to increase the power of those who control the government.

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It is clear the real purpose of the Liberal platform is to give Liberals more power — first by getting people to vote for a Liberal government and then by giving the government more control over everything: how people spend their money, what industries they work in, what social doctrines they uphold (see for example, the Liberals’ proposal that pregnancy care centres be stripped of their charity status for their insufficient enthusiasm in promoting abortion), what cars they drive, what they watch on television, and so on. And also control over businesses: who they hire, who they promote, what they produce, where they buy from, and what their business objectives should be, among other things.

Those reluctant to ascribe nefarious motives to the Liberals and their platform might want to consider why we are in an election in the first place. Did Justin Trudeau call it primarily because he wanted to improve economic outcomes and raise the standard of living for ordinary Canadians? Or did he call it because he wanted more power? Nobody thinks his motivation was the public good. Ask Trudeau himself why he called the election and he is liable to launch into a soliloquy about some unrelated topic in hopes that by the time he has finished the question is forgotten.

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The Liberals’ climate policies are another instructive case study on understanding the left. They say that a carbon tax is the most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but at the same time boast of having spent more than $100 billion since coming to power in 2015 on “clean growth” initiatives. If, as they say, the most economical way to fight climate change is with a carbon tax, why would they then spend over $100 billion — about eight months’ worth of federal personal income tax revenues — on uneconomical programs? The answer is: not to make life better for Canadians, but to give more power to Liberals. They like having the power to spend other people’s money and hope that the recipients of the spending will become committed Liberal voters and donors.

Finally, considering the Liberals’ incentives is helpful in understanding the Liberal platform. Imagine you’re Justin Trudeau. An election platform that increases economic growth, expands opportunity, allows for more freedom, and raises standards of living would entail renouncing and reversing the policies you’ve implemented over the past six years. What incentive do you have to deliver such a platform? None at all.

Matthew Lau is a Toronto writer.