My inclination is to vote for the Liberals in the next election although my decision is not cast in stone. I am persuadable although right now I'd say there's an 80% chance I'd vote for the Liberals. I have a handful of sometimes vague reasons for this: 1) Justin Trudeau does not seem to be resorting to nastiness for political purposes, in contrast to his predecessor, 2) They seem moderate and reasonable on some important issues to me (resource development and trade), and 3) Harjit Sajjan has become an important role model to many Canadians and especially Sikh Canadians and I want to continue to see him in Cabinet. Reason Number 3 is especially important to me right now. Voting for another Party would jeopardize his place in Cabinet and ultimately, that would be a negative for my community, the Sikh community.
However, as a previous supporter of the Conservative Party, I do have some advice for those individuals who are contemplating a run for the party's leadership. I would break down my advice into two areas:
A) Inclusion. The Conservatives' whole approach to minority outreach over the past decade was flawed, at some level. It was led by Jason Kenney, who undoubtedly devoted thousands of hours towards developing relationships by showing up at different events. To me and many others though, it came across too cynically, as if it was only about votes. That sense could come up with an NDP or Liberal politician too but that doesn't make it acceptable. When a politician comes to an event, the votes they gain should only be a happy by-product of their presence. It shouldn't be the driving focus or the elephant in the room.
With Kenney, it felt as if it was more about doling out favours and hoping for a return from influential community members who had "vote banks". This approach might be better than neglecting communities entirely but it didn't exactly inspire confidence from average members of those communities. A better approach would be to build relationships and have those relationships be built by people who seem to be doing it because they like the people they are building those relationships with (the Conservatives actually have some people with this quality like Jim Prentice but they need to find more of them and place them in outreach positions). The approach should be about listening and then representing the community's concerns in particular avenues (like policy) and actually acting like you care about the community's actual priorities rather than the personal interests of particular power brokers. I rarely felt that Kenney actually reflected the Sikh community's interests in any meaningful way. Again, the extra votes that result should be a happy accident. They shouldn't be cravenly driving the entire thinking behind every event and interaction.
With the Liberals, the question of their representation of the Sikh community has often been in question over the years. For almost a decade, Ujjal Dosanjh was their most prominent Sikh member and voice. This was disheartening for most members of the community who see Ujjal Dosanjh as a brown-skinned and self-serving communist/atheist rather than a Sikh in any meaningful sense. But now, the Sikh community is represented quite well in the Liberal Caucus with 16 MPs and 4 Cabinet Ministers. 5 MPs are Sardars and at least 4 of those 5 are Amrit Dhari. The Liberals have to worry less about demonstrating inclusion because they're demonstrating that inclusion in action every day by the makeup of their caucus and their Cabinet. This doesn't mean that Sikhs should be complacent but there is definitely a level of comfort and pride that didn't exist in the past.
How can the Conservatives replicate this? As mentioned above, it'll be by changing the nature of their relationship with different minority groups. It'll be about listening and not asking for votes. It'll be about meeting with stakeholders beyond "community power brokers with 500 votes in the bank". It'll be about taking stances on issues that might even require some courage. Your canned Gurpurab greetings are worthless to me and most other people. Sometimes this can be dicey. Taking a stand in favour of Sikh human rights in India might come across as problematic to pro-Government of India members of the Hindu community but it can be pulled off without being too alienating by coming across as principled and heartfelt rather than as a political/vote-winning ploy. Giving MPs more autonomy and freedom to take stances based on the concerns of their constituents is also a key ingredient to this. Too often, Conservative MPs felt handicapped by their party's heavy-handed message control. Individual Conservative MPs can be perfectly nice and pleasant individuals but until they feel more empowered to publicly take positions that might make their party uncomfortable, effective outreach is difficult. Effective outreach ultimately requires more freedom for individual MPs. It'll also require being more creative when it comes to candidate recruitment. The Conservatives have run minority candidates in the past but the party needs to make sure they're not just nominating ambitious self-promoters but instead that they're nominating people who their communities can be proud of; educated role models who are driven by a sense of service. But these types of quality candidates won't be recruited until the party changes its approach to minority voters more broadly.
B) Thinking Big on Policy. The Harper years were not particularly ambitious when it came to matters of policy. Harper was known as an incrementalist but this type of approach alienated small-c conservatives and other Canadians interested in progress and big-thinking such. If the Conservatives are to capture the imagination of voters, they need to bring forward more ambitious policy proposals. Luckily for them, I have the following suggestions:
1) Supporting the Free Movement of Citizens between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and England along a model similar to the European Union. This might come across as racially dicey: why a preference for only Australia, New Zealand and England, which are predominantly white countries? But it isn't. Each of these countries is a multi-racial democracy that is largely similar in nature to Canada. Borders are often effectively a block on economic growth and human potential. Doing away with borders in particular circumstances when they can facilitate economic growth is a policy with few downsides. It strikes me as an ambitious policy and in-line with big-thinking Mulroney-era policies like Free Trade and the GST. Depending on the policy's success, the topic could even be broached with the Americans down the road.
2) Increasing immigration. Right now, Canada's immigration target is 1%. This is a pretty good target compared to other countries but Canada would do well to increase it. It should be increased to 1.5% or 2% and Canada should do more to bring the world's best and brightest to our communities. The government should work to increase Canada's population and make it a much bigger player on the world level. We know that natural population growth in Canada is minimal and so the government should be investing in increasing quality immigration to Canada. The points system is a good system but the country needs to increase the size of the immigration department to process more applications. Canada should eventually hand out 500,000 PR cards in a year compared to the 250,000 or so that are given out now. The federal government should work with the communities that are absorbing the most immigrants to ensure that there is not too large a strain on public services (so as to help immigration integration and to avoid any kind of backlash). Innovative strategies are also needed to increase immigration to the Atlantic Provinces who desperately need the influx of dynamism that immigration entails. Increasing immigration is a sound policy that also has the side-benefit of reassuring voters that the party is not xenophobic.
3) Phasing out Supply Management in Canada's dairy sector. Clearly, this is a policy that helps dairy farmers but it also hurts Canada's bargaining position in free trade talks. Phase it out over 5 or 10 years. It'll help Canada's position when negotiating free trade deals and it'll reduce dairy prices significantly for average Canadians and it'll especially be a benefit to Canadians living in poverty who would get a nice break on their grocery bills.
4) Expanding the Economic Union beyond the New West Partnership that includes BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. These three provinces have a pretty cohesive economic union that governs internal trade and other issues relating to economic efficiency. The next Conservative Government should work with Provinces to expand this agreement into Manitoba and Ontario. Eventually, it should also include Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces as well. Increasing economic efficiency by streamlining regulations, accreditation standards, etc. is something the Conservatives need to be leading on. There's a federal leadership role in this. Provinces that are resistant need to be brought to the table with incentives.
5) Tax reform. The Harper government made Canada's tax code more of a nightmare than it already was beforehand. It seems politically difficult but I'd like to see the GST raised to 6 or 7% or even higher with a corresponding decrease in personal taxes. I haven't done the Math but I'd like to see a tax system with only two brackets rather than the current four. These two brackets could be something like 15% (for income up to $150,000) and 30% (for income above $150,000). There would be a hit to revenue but the increase to the GST could make up for it. I remember Tony Clement had a proposal in his 2004 run for the Conservative Party leadership which exempted income tax on the first $250,000 earned by young Canadians. This could also be an interesting policy that could appeal to younger voters.
6) Healthcare reform. I'm not a healthcare expert but I know that there are some reform proposals out there that could ultimately benefit our healthcare system. Modest user fees could be implemented to raise revenue and discourage unnecessary doctors visits. Innovative policies could be devised to attract more doctors and nurses and to streamline the accreditation process for foreign doctors. Regardless, I'd like to see the Conservatives propose at least some ambitious reforms to the healthcare system. Wait times are too long. The free market has some role to play. Find that role and propose it. Don't be debilitated by the fear of proposing something that might be politically sensitive.
7) Criminal Justice Reform. It might be hard for the Conservatives to see, but their policies on criminal justice issues alienated them from many voters, myself included. While Conservatives in the USA are even embracing criminal justice reforms (albeit from a worse starting position), Conservatives in Canada come across as out-of-touch in their so-called "tough on crime" positioning. Conservatives need to embrace the legalization of marijuana and in general need to support a policy of increasing treatment over increasing incarceration for drug offenders. Mandatory minimums for offences should be re-examined and not expanded as they often lead to miscarriages of justice for first-time and other offenders that could otherwise be rehabilitated. Criminal justice legislation needs to be driven by policy and evidence more than cynically playing to the raw emotions of victims of crime. Most importantly, the Conservatives need to embrace the Charter whole-heartedly. Any legislation relating to the Criminal Justice system must be obviously compliant with the Charter. Too often, it seemed as if the Conservatives treated the Charter as an annoyance rather than as something that they had to abide by when crafting legislation. Rather, the focus should be on providing police in Canada with more resources to solve crimes. Too many violent crimes are going unsolved. The reason for this needs to be examined and addressed.
8) A more ambitious policy on bringing resources to market. It seems as if our big resource projects in Canada are stuck in the muck even though thousands of good-paying jobs are depending on their approval. LNG in BC is not getting off the ground. And most importantly, pipelines are not getting built, which increases the cost of Alberta oil and places it at a competitive disadvantage. Propose a policy on dealing with mega-projects such as these. Find a way to streamline and speed up the approval processes. The Liberals are actually hinting at delaying the approval processes further, rather than speeding them up. These projects are clearly taking way too long to get going and some out of the box thinking is needed.
9) A New Deal with Canada's First Nations. Related in part to Point 8, the Federal government needs to intervene to make deals with affected First Nations on resource projects which will likely include new federal funding for First Nations priorities. First Nations are opposed to Liquefied Natural Gas projects in BC which are absolutely critical to future economic growth and Provincial Government revenue in the Province. It seems obvious to me that there could be ways to bring the affected First Nations to the table and to hash out deals that are win-wins but this would require political leadership and a new policy to bring to the table that could capture the imagination of First Nations peoples. In part, this policy needs to include a more ambitious plan for First Nations education. The policy will also likely need to include funding for other priority issues that could lead to long term progress for First Nations peoples.
10) Building on Harper's Free Trade legacy. Stephen Harper, for all his faults, has a pretty positive legacy when it comes to free trade with the EU deal and TPP in particular. As mentioned in Point 3, Canada needs to adopt a posture that is all about maximizing free trade deals. This means phasing out Supply Management and other issues that hinder Canada's negotiating posture in free trade talks. Canada should strike free trade deals with every willing democratic country. Free trade deals with undemocratic countries (eg. China) or less-than-democratic countries (eg. India) can be considered as well but only if Canada's ability to speak out against human rights abuses is not compromised in the process.
With the Liberals, the question of their representation of the Sikh community has often been in question over the years. For almost a decade, Ujjal Dosanjh was their most prominent Sikh member and voice. This was disheartening for most members of the community who see Ujjal Dosanjh as a brown-skinned and self-serving communist/atheist rather than a Sikh in any meaningful sense. But now, the Sikh community is represented quite well in the Liberal Caucus with 16 MPs and 4 Cabinet Ministers. 5 MPs are Sardars and at least 4 of those 5 are Amrit Dhari. The Liberals have to worry less about demonstrating inclusion because they're demonstrating that inclusion in action every day by the makeup of their caucus and their Cabinet. This doesn't mean that Sikhs should be complacent but there is definitely a level of comfort and pride that didn't exist in the past.
How can the Conservatives replicate this? As mentioned above, it'll be by changing the nature of their relationship with different minority groups. It'll be about listening and not asking for votes. It'll be about meeting with stakeholders beyond "community power brokers with 500 votes in the bank". It'll be about taking stances on issues that might even require some courage. Your canned Gurpurab greetings are worthless to me and most other people. Sometimes this can be dicey. Taking a stand in favour of Sikh human rights in India might come across as problematic to pro-Government of India members of the Hindu community but it can be pulled off without being too alienating by coming across as principled and heartfelt rather than as a political/vote-winning ploy. Giving MPs more autonomy and freedom to take stances based on the concerns of their constituents is also a key ingredient to this. Too often, Conservative MPs felt handicapped by their party's heavy-handed message control. Individual Conservative MPs can be perfectly nice and pleasant individuals but until they feel more empowered to publicly take positions that might make their party uncomfortable, effective outreach is difficult. Effective outreach ultimately requires more freedom for individual MPs. It'll also require being more creative when it comes to candidate recruitment. The Conservatives have run minority candidates in the past but the party needs to make sure they're not just nominating ambitious self-promoters but instead that they're nominating people who their communities can be proud of; educated role models who are driven by a sense of service. But these types of quality candidates won't be recruited until the party changes its approach to minority voters more broadly.
B) Thinking Big on Policy. The Harper years were not particularly ambitious when it came to matters of policy. Harper was known as an incrementalist but this type of approach alienated small-c conservatives and other Canadians interested in progress and big-thinking such. If the Conservatives are to capture the imagination of voters, they need to bring forward more ambitious policy proposals. Luckily for them, I have the following suggestions:
1) Supporting the Free Movement of Citizens between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and England along a model similar to the European Union. This might come across as racially dicey: why a preference for only Australia, New Zealand and England, which are predominantly white countries? But it isn't. Each of these countries is a multi-racial democracy that is largely similar in nature to Canada. Borders are often effectively a block on economic growth and human potential. Doing away with borders in particular circumstances when they can facilitate economic growth is a policy with few downsides. It strikes me as an ambitious policy and in-line with big-thinking Mulroney-era policies like Free Trade and the GST. Depending on the policy's success, the topic could even be broached with the Americans down the road.
2) Increasing immigration. Right now, Canada's immigration target is 1%. This is a pretty good target compared to other countries but Canada would do well to increase it. It should be increased to 1.5% or 2% and Canada should do more to bring the world's best and brightest to our communities. The government should work to increase Canada's population and make it a much bigger player on the world level. We know that natural population growth in Canada is minimal and so the government should be investing in increasing quality immigration to Canada. The points system is a good system but the country needs to increase the size of the immigration department to process more applications. Canada should eventually hand out 500,000 PR cards in a year compared to the 250,000 or so that are given out now. The federal government should work with the communities that are absorbing the most immigrants to ensure that there is not too large a strain on public services (so as to help immigration integration and to avoid any kind of backlash). Innovative strategies are also needed to increase immigration to the Atlantic Provinces who desperately need the influx of dynamism that immigration entails. Increasing immigration is a sound policy that also has the side-benefit of reassuring voters that the party is not xenophobic.
3) Phasing out Supply Management in Canada's dairy sector. Clearly, this is a policy that helps dairy farmers but it also hurts Canada's bargaining position in free trade talks. Phase it out over 5 or 10 years. It'll help Canada's position when negotiating free trade deals and it'll reduce dairy prices significantly for average Canadians and it'll especially be a benefit to Canadians living in poverty who would get a nice break on their grocery bills.
4) Expanding the Economic Union beyond the New West Partnership that includes BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. These three provinces have a pretty cohesive economic union that governs internal trade and other issues relating to economic efficiency. The next Conservative Government should work with Provinces to expand this agreement into Manitoba and Ontario. Eventually, it should also include Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces as well. Increasing economic efficiency by streamlining regulations, accreditation standards, etc. is something the Conservatives need to be leading on. There's a federal leadership role in this. Provinces that are resistant need to be brought to the table with incentives.
5) Tax reform. The Harper government made Canada's tax code more of a nightmare than it already was beforehand. It seems politically difficult but I'd like to see the GST raised to 6 or 7% or even higher with a corresponding decrease in personal taxes. I haven't done the Math but I'd like to see a tax system with only two brackets rather than the current four. These two brackets could be something like 15% (for income up to $150,000) and 30% (for income above $150,000). There would be a hit to revenue but the increase to the GST could make up for it. I remember Tony Clement had a proposal in his 2004 run for the Conservative Party leadership which exempted income tax on the first $250,000 earned by young Canadians. This could also be an interesting policy that could appeal to younger voters.
6) Healthcare reform. I'm not a healthcare expert but I know that there are some reform proposals out there that could ultimately benefit our healthcare system. Modest user fees could be implemented to raise revenue and discourage unnecessary doctors visits. Innovative policies could be devised to attract more doctors and nurses and to streamline the accreditation process for foreign doctors. Regardless, I'd like to see the Conservatives propose at least some ambitious reforms to the healthcare system. Wait times are too long. The free market has some role to play. Find that role and propose it. Don't be debilitated by the fear of proposing something that might be politically sensitive.
7) Criminal Justice Reform. It might be hard for the Conservatives to see, but their policies on criminal justice issues alienated them from many voters, myself included. While Conservatives in the USA are even embracing criminal justice reforms (albeit from a worse starting position), Conservatives in Canada come across as out-of-touch in their so-called "tough on crime" positioning. Conservatives need to embrace the legalization of marijuana and in general need to support a policy of increasing treatment over increasing incarceration for drug offenders. Mandatory minimums for offences should be re-examined and not expanded as they often lead to miscarriages of justice for first-time and other offenders that could otherwise be rehabilitated. Criminal justice legislation needs to be driven by policy and evidence more than cynically playing to the raw emotions of victims of crime. Most importantly, the Conservatives need to embrace the Charter whole-heartedly. Any legislation relating to the Criminal Justice system must be obviously compliant with the Charter. Too often, it seemed as if the Conservatives treated the Charter as an annoyance rather than as something that they had to abide by when crafting legislation. Rather, the focus should be on providing police in Canada with more resources to solve crimes. Too many violent crimes are going unsolved. The reason for this needs to be examined and addressed.
8) A more ambitious policy on bringing resources to market. It seems as if our big resource projects in Canada are stuck in the muck even though thousands of good-paying jobs are depending on their approval. LNG in BC is not getting off the ground. And most importantly, pipelines are not getting built, which increases the cost of Alberta oil and places it at a competitive disadvantage. Propose a policy on dealing with mega-projects such as these. Find a way to streamline and speed up the approval processes. The Liberals are actually hinting at delaying the approval processes further, rather than speeding them up. These projects are clearly taking way too long to get going and some out of the box thinking is needed.
9) A New Deal with Canada's First Nations. Related in part to Point 8, the Federal government needs to intervene to make deals with affected First Nations on resource projects which will likely include new federal funding for First Nations priorities. First Nations are opposed to Liquefied Natural Gas projects in BC which are absolutely critical to future economic growth and Provincial Government revenue in the Province. It seems obvious to me that there could be ways to bring the affected First Nations to the table and to hash out deals that are win-wins but this would require political leadership and a new policy to bring to the table that could capture the imagination of First Nations peoples. In part, this policy needs to include a more ambitious plan for First Nations education. The policy will also likely need to include funding for other priority issues that could lead to long term progress for First Nations peoples.
10) Building on Harper's Free Trade legacy. Stephen Harper, for all his faults, has a pretty positive legacy when it comes to free trade with the EU deal and TPP in particular. As mentioned in Point 3, Canada needs to adopt a posture that is all about maximizing free trade deals. This means phasing out Supply Management and other issues that hinder Canada's negotiating posture in free trade talks. Canada should strike free trade deals with every willing democratic country. Free trade deals with undemocratic countries (eg. China) or less-than-democratic countries (eg. India) can be considered as well but only if Canada's ability to speak out against human rights abuses is not compromised in the process.
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