Politicians’ Promises: Worthless, Says the Court.

Recently, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that anyone who believes a promise made by a politician is naïve about the democratic system. 

Let me first point out that I belong to no political party.  I am happy to criticize any party that behaves idiotically.

You see, during the 2003 provincial election campaign, Dalton McGuinty needed all the support he could get.  So, in a big, publicized ceremony, Mr. McGuinty signed a contract with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (“CTF”), promising, that if elected, he would not raise taxes or implement new ones without the “explicit consent of Ontario voters”.  He also promised to abide by the Taxpayer Protection Act.

(You may recall my previous ranting about that Act.  It purports to prevent a government from raising taxes without a referendum.  It is anti-democratic to expect a government to pass a law preventing itself from passing laws.  I also said that any government could amend the Act, making it a toothless tiger.)

Of course, when he got elected, the Liberals claimed that the Tories had left them a huge deficit and they had no choice but to raise taxes.  They then made a new tax, the health care premium, merely a resurrection of the long-buried and decomposed OHIP premium of old.

As an aside, how could he really have been surprised by the “deficit”?  For eight years, the Liberals had been claiming that the Tories were cooking the books to show balanced budgets.  Once the Liberals got into office, they used the “surprise” deficit, which they claimed had existed all along, to justify raising taxes.

The CTF took McGuinty to court, seeking to strike down the health care premium.  For many reasons, the Court refused to give the CTF any relief.  One of those reasons was that the principle of parliamentary sovereignty meant that a government had the power to amend its own laws.  There’s the toothless tiger.

The court also said:  “In the course of election campaigns politicians and their parties present their election platform to the electorate. In so doing they commonly make promises and pledge that they will or will not do various things if and when they are elected.  It is hoped that, if elected, the politicians and their parties will keep their promises and will follow through with the pledges given. This said, however, few people would consider that all of the promises made and pledges given constitute legally binding agreements between the candidate and the elector or electors to whom these promises or pledges were made.”

In other words, next election campaign (whether federal, provincial or municipal), whenever you hear politicians start promising what they are going to do if elected, you might as well plug your ears and imagine them saying “yada, yada, yada”, because that’s all it’s worth.

The court ruled that the remedy for voters who are upset with broken promises is the next election.  So, if you are running for office, lie all you want, because we can’t kick you out for it until your term expires. 

If that’s supposed to be democracy, who are we to criticize the “corrupt” governments of non-democratic nations?