Monday, January 02, 2006

Again, the CP platform of sentence fragments

Well, I found it surprising. Because the 36-page Green Party platform was released today, I thought I would also check out what the other party platforms were saying.
So first I looked at the Liberal website, not expecting much because Martin hasn't done very many policy announcements. But I did find fairly detailed coverage of six primary issue areas, with each link leading to additional proposals for five or six or more initiatives relating to each policy.
On the NDP website, there are 16 "issue" areas listed. The links mainly seem to focus more on critiques of what they think the Liberals have failed to do rather than details about what the NDP would do instead. Still, at least there is some detail to this site, too, even though the detail is mostly criticism.
And finally I checked the Conservative website. Now, one of my main complaints during the 2004 election about the Conservatives was about how very shallow their platform was then. So now, after a policy convention a year ago, as well as a month of announcement after announcement, I had expected some depth on the Conservative website.
But theirs was actually the worst. I found this page listing six "stand up for . . . " issues. But when you click on the links, you get virtually no detail at all. Once again the Conservatives give us a platform of sentence fragments -- in the "Communities" section, for example, the Conservatives make vague promises like "Action to ensure clean air, land, and water" and "New or rebuilt municipal roads, bridges and other infrastructure", while the Liberals provide specific commitments and dollar details about the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, the gas tax transfer, and the GST rebate to municipalities.
So in the last 18 months, I cannot see that the Conservatives have fleshed out their policies very much at all.

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