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Dan-in-Ottawa

PM: Deja vu all over again

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recycled his broken promises into the Liberal government throne speech Wednesday.

For those unfamiliar with what a throne speech is, here is the definition from the House of Commons:

“The Speech from the Throne usually sets forth in some detail the government’s view of the condition of the country and provides an indication of what legislation it intends to bring forward.”

The challenge with Wednesday’s throne speech is that it takes previous promises made by Prime Minister Trudeau that  became broken promises, only to be promised yet again.

I will give some specific examples of this.

In this throne speech, the PM promises “the government will immediately bring forward a plan to exceed Canada’s 2030 climate goal.”

This government has for, five years now, been making this promise and yet GHG emissions only continue to rise.

Once again, a promise is made that does not reconcile with previous Trudeau Liberal policy decisions, that include giving a 95.5% carbon tax discount on coal power in New Brunswick.

Another promise is “the government will accelerate the connectivity timelines and ambitions of the Universal Broadband Fund to ensure that all Canadians, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet.”

The Liberals have also been making this promise for five years and there are still many areas of Central-Okanagan-Similkameen Nicola that do not even have a wireless cellular signal let alone high speed internet.

There has been no progress in these areas.

Some will recall during the election last year, the Prime Minister promised a 25% reduction on cellular phone bills.

Another lofty, but, to date, unfulfilled promise.

These are a few examples of promises made from Prime Minister Trudeau.

Why am I critical of this?

To use an analogy, a session of Parliament is not unlike a dinner plate. There is only so much room to load up on food. If too much food is loaded onto the plate, only so much can be eaten, and the rest is thrown away.

If you have ever been served an overloaded plate of food, odds are you will pick and prioritize the items your prefer and invariably decide what items are left behind.

This is why prioritizing is critically important when a government sets its legislative agenda to get bills through the house.

At Trudeau’s cabinet table are many of the same individuals who failed to deliver on these very same promises over the past five years when this Liberal government enjoyed a majority.

To repackage many of these same, now broken, promises and add news ones is simply not credible, given the track record of this Liberal government. 

What falls off the table remains to be seen.

My question this week:

  • Do you prefer a throne speech that realistically advances an agenda that can potentially move through the House or the current Liberal government approach that, while ambitious, will, as history demonstrates, result in more broken promises.

I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

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About the Author

Dan Albas is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola and the co-chair of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.

Before entering public life, Dan was the owner of Kick City Martial Arts, responsible for training hundreds of men, women and youth to bring out their best.

Dan  is consistently recognized as one of Canada’s top 10 most active Members of Parliament on Twitter (@danalbas) and also continues to write a weekly column published in many local newspapers and on this website.

Dan welcomes comments, questions and concerns from citizens and is often available to speak to groups and organizations on matters of federal concern. 

He can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free at 1-800-665-8711.



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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