Canada needs a Ron Paul

According to this Financial Post article, stimulus spending has lost support in the USA. Polls show that the public do not feel that it has created jobs and the White House is having trouble passing increased spending that was introduced in February. Even the rhetoric of President Obama has shifted from a need for stimulus to a need for fighting the looming debt crisis.

This mirrors much of what is happening in Canada. Here too the Canadian people are doubtful of the benefits of the stimulus package. Economists are likely to debate the validity of this doubt for years, but that is no surprise considering that the pros and cons of government stimulus have been debated for a century. Ultimately, from a politician’s point of view, it doesn’t matter what the economists say, the voters don’t think it worked.

The main difference between the political situation in America and Canada is that in the US there is a small cadre of politicians that always opposed the stimulus plan. Politicians such as Ron Paul and Jeff Flake can stand up and say that they were right all along. Now that public opinion has shifted their way they can reap a political reward for their principled opposition.

In Canada you will have trouble finding a politician that openly opposed the government’s spending. The opposition parties lack credibility on this issue because their main criticism at the time was that the government wasn’t spending enough. There was also a lack of provincial premiers rejecting the money the way that some Republican state governors did in the USA. And of course even if some Conservative MPs didn’t like the stimulus package, the oppressive nature of our political culture would have prevented them from saying so anywhere near cameras.

This means that as the country loses faith in the Keynesian strategy there is no one for Canadians to look towards as the proponent of the alternative. There is no Ron Paul for Canadians, and it cannot be said that there is no appetite for someone who will shake up the debate. Stephen Harper receives the best marks in polling data for being trusted with the economy, but even his grade is pretty low. The people just do not trust the current political leadership on economic issues.

The fundamental problem here is not that there is not dissenting opinion among Canada’s political class. The problem is that the political culture stifles debate. Without a healthy and full debate about our economic future, the Canadian people are left with no options when they tick their choice at the ballot box.