POLITICAL PANDERING

Liberal Stephane Dion wants tougher crime laws and Conservative
Stephen Harper wants to give money to the provincial governments for
child care. Canada's political middle is getting very mushy.

Monday's budget is expected to contain a rethought child-care plan.
The old Conservative plan did give parents choice, but it didn't
create spaces for parents who choose child care.

Crime is also back on the agenda. Mr. Dion is taking ideas from all
sides. Like the NDP, he favours a $10-an-hour minimum wage. Like the
Conservatives and the NDP, he's in favour of reverse-onus bail
hearings for gun crimes. That means assuming an untried accused is a
danger to society unless he or she can prove otherwise. The three
biggest federal parties seem to have no qualms about creating broad
exceptions to the idea that people are innocent until proven guilty.

With all the attention devoted to crime by the parties, one might
expect that crime rates have been rising in Canada. In fact, they
have not. But there are lots of safe political points in promising to
lock up criminals. Those promises don't require thought or courage.

Nobody wants to touch the unsolved justice issues that do require
leadership. For example, harm reduction for addicts has a positive
effect on public health, but police forces continue to oppose many
harm-reduction programs. It's not an easy issue. Calling for safe
places to shoot up or free alcohol for shelter residents doesn't play
well anywhere near a picket fence. But it's an issue governments are
going to have to address.

Mr. Dion and Mr. Harper are criticizing each other for having no new
ideas. "Dion flip-flops on crime," screams the Conservative website.
On the Liberal website, Mr. Dion accuses Mr. Harper of "cynical flip-flops."

Increasingly, both seem more interested in getting votes than in
crafting good policies. As the Conservatives restore Liberal
environmental programs and the Liberals try to find nits to pick in
Conservative policy, the voters are going to get bored.

This fight for the political centre won't do much for voter turnout,
but it does make strategic sense for the parties. Our electoral
system favours the bland.

The parties that take the fewest chances get elected. It isn't good
strategy to come up with new ideas.

It is good strategy to criticize the other team for failing to come
up with new ideas. Sad to say, it's good strategy to throw money at
everything that moves, a habit that Mr. Harper has developed in recent weeks.

All the yelling about flip-flops and stolen ideas is pure rhetoric.
There's nothing wrong with an honest change in policy made for good
reasons. There's nothing wrong with agreeing with one's political
opponents from time to time.

But there is something wrong with a political culture devoid of real
choices. There is something wrong with easy slogans replacing
difficult ideas. There is something wrong with politicians spending
public money to win seats. If this is the direction Canadian politics
is taking, citizens had better get prepared for more disappointment.