Ottawa

That’s not change Monte Solberg can believe in

The former Conservative MP and minister in the Harper government considers change and hope and other such nonsense.

Most of the time the promise of big political change is never fulfilled because while people say they want change, they don’t want it to cost them any money, time or discomfort, so good luck with that.

But if we can’t believe in each other, what can we believe in? Monte goes on.

The political change that you can believe in involves mundane things such as paying down debt, keeping a lid on spending, reducing taxes as the tax base expands (especially taxes that hurt investment), properly regulating capital markets, expanding trade, leveraging private sector dollars to invest in infrastructure, building a strong military, building strong police forces and constantly tweaking effective programs while cutting ineffective programs.

Sadly, this is very gradual and not very exciting change, but it is change you can believe in because we know it works.

You could give speeches about this kind of change, but if you did many journalists would run screaming from the room.

Canadians, however, tend to like this kind of change. In fact this is exactly the change they talk about while spending their toonies at Tims. 

Quick quiz. With this column, is Mr. Solberg being:

A) Small-minded and defeatist.
B) Realistic and rational.
C) All of the above.

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