When senior federal Liberals talk about what went wrong in the recent election campaign, they point to the fact that they let Stephen Harper become the champion of working families in this country.
In yesterday's budget, the federal Tories continued with that little piece of thievery, and stamped their own small-c conservative philosophy on the effort in the process.
While opposition politicians complained about overspending and profligate tax cuts, a close look at how the money gets doled out should tell you something about which voters the Tories are aiming at during the next election.
Moreover, the first Conservative budget in 13 years demonstrates that these Tories have not abandoned their traditional view of the world. While he may be trying to straddle the middle of the political spectrum, Mr. Harper is also pursuing conservative principles by allowing individual Canadians to pocket government money and by cutting government involvement in programs.
Take, for example, the announcement yesterday of a tax credit provided to working Canadians to cover employment expenses. The measure, which would provide Canadians with about $155 in tax savings when fully implemented, is aimed squarely at working families and low-.and middle-income earners, the voting bloc that Mr. Harper so assiduously courted in the recent campaign.
Modest as it may be, the measure also delivers a political message by creating incentives for welfare recipients to try to move into the ranks of the employed, another traditional conservative notion.
The child-care allowance has a similar ring. Rather than funnelling money to the provinces, Mr. Harper has taken the conservative approach of putting cash back into Canadians' wallets and letting them spend it how they wish. The move also removes provincial governments from the mix, ensuring that the state-administered daycare programs that the Liberal plan funded are starved of federal cash.
The focus on tax cuts may be one reason why NDP Leader Jack Layton — until now only a mild critic of the Tories — has decided not to vote for the budget. The cash is not being used by the state, as the NDP would traditionally want, but rather by the individual.
Here's one final example of the conservative tinge that colours this document. Currently, postsecondary students who receive scholarships and bursaries see only the first $3,000 of that scholarship sheltered from tax. The budget proposes to fully exempt scholarships from all tax, a move that would encourage students to stay in school longer and attain higher levels of education. The budget also includes tax breaks for students to buy textbooks. Again, it's money for individuals, not for the schools.
Those who doubt what's going on here might want to read a recent article by Mr. Harper's Clerk of the Privy Council, Kevin Lynch. In that piece, which appears in this month's issue of Policy Options, Mr. Lynch argues that improving productivity in this country depends upon Canadians increasing their educational achievement. These budget measures address that.
Of course, if the Conservatives were purely conservative, they might have dispensed with the social engineering that the budget is designed for and simply cut tax rates and reduced spending. But this is a minority government, after all. For real laissez-faire conservatism, Mr. Harper, and the rest of us, may have to wait for a majority.
