Published April 2nd 2010 in the Toronto Sun
Finding balance – by making a choice
Michael Ignatieff
Is there room for bold ideas in our politics?
The answer – at least according the thousands who took part in online and Montreal for the Canada at 150 conference this past weekend – is a resounding “yes.”
As we approach our 150th birthday as a country in 2017, we face some big challenges – challenges that call for a national conversation about the future.
Canadians took part in droves in an unprecedented exchange of bold ideas that was truly national in scope. 70 satellite events were held across the country. Over 20,000 people watched the live webcast from Montreal. Questions came in via Twitter and Skype, contributing to an open and honest discussion that crossed borders, both geographical and technological.
In Montreal, presenters like the former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge put it starkly: an ageing population, rising health care costs, and slower economic growth require urgent and difficult choices.
In spite of the gloomy prognosis, Canada at 150 pointed the way to a more hopeful future – but only if we choose our priorities.
First, learning and innovation to support high quality jobs. We need a pan-Canadian approach to learning, from early childhood development and care, to adult literacy and language training, to helping families send their kids to higher education and training.
Second, social and economic security. We need a national approach to health promotion, to keep Canadians healthy and to ease the strain on our health care system. We need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with families who care for loved ones at home. And we need immediate measures to boost retirement savings—like a supplementary Canada Pension Plan.
Third, restoring Canada’s global leadership, beginning with the clean energy investments that will create the well-paying jobs we want for our kinds. We need to be better stewards of our environment, as we work to become the most energy-efficient society on the planet.
Learning and Innovation. Social and economic security. Canadian global leadership. These are big challenges – and unless we start working on them now, the Canada of 2017 will be a poorer, less equal country.
Everything I heard at Canada at 150 suggested that addressing these challenges will require a new kind of federal leadership.
Federal leadership should be about convening, not command and control. Ottawa needs to bring the country together in common purpose, and build networks of responsibilities that are focused on outcomes.
Instead, all the current government offers is cuts and reduced expectations, because they have no other plan to address the $54 billion deficit they created.
On Sunday, I made a different choice, by announcing that a Liberal government will freeze corporate tax rates.
Thanks to responsible tax cuts by Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, Canada’s corporate tax rate is already globally competitive, and a 25 percent lower than in the United States.
This measure will free up billions of dollars to reduce the deficit, while also allowing us to make the necessary investments in learning, care, and global leadership we discussed last weekend in Montreal.
The current government plans to rush ahead with further corporate tax reductions, when ours are already competitive. We would defer those reductions until the country can afford them.
We’ve committed to a credible deficit reduction target, with reductions every year until the budget is balanced. We will build a fiscal cushion into our planning to make sure we meet fiscal targets. And we will commit to a policy of spending restraint, by proposing new platform investments only if we can show exactly where the money is coming from, without increasing the deficit.
Our approach allows us to balance the budget while making strategic, critical investments that will give Canadians the tools to build our future.
During Canada at 150, we focused on the future, and on the kind of Canada we want in 2017, when we celebrate our 150th birthday. Daunting challenges stand between us and that milestone. But if we act now, and act together, Canada will lead the world again. I am confident that we will.
Michael Ignatieff is Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and Member of Parliament for Etobicoke—Lakeshore.
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