Bill Casey and the Budget vote

Bill Casey is a class act. He represents the riding next door to Beausejour where I go to school and I have heard nothing but good things about the man. I have even got the answer, "because of Bill Casey", from more than one person when I ask them, "what is it that makes you a Conservative".

That all being said, he has now voted against the budget, a confidence motion, and will be kicked out of caucus. This is unfortunate for the people of his constituency, which includes Amherst and Truro, but also a HUGE loss for the Conservative Party.

The people I go to school with from the riding simply cannot say enough about this man. He is good with the constituents, is well known in the community, and has served them well. A few of them, if I were to guess their particular ideology, would not be Conservatives without Mr. Casey as their MP.

Because of this, I tend to agree with On Liberty take on this...

In a region where Conservative seats are hard to come by we don’t need to remove a capable man from a seat that he can guarantee to put in the “win” column on election night. We don’t need to disillusion the voters in his riding who expect principle to be respected. Casey is no Garth Turner, he’s a decent hard-working man who is an asset to the Conservative Party. It’s time for this party to do politics differently.

However, I do not know how the party can ignore his vote and reinstate him. Copycats would be sure to follow, and the caucus has the potential to crumble. And there is the issue at hand as well. Bill Casey IS wrong on this issue in my mind. Yes, Harper did not keep his word 100%, but when looking at it from a policy perspective, and not regional or political, he made the right move.

I am not an opponent of asymmetrical federalism in general, but only as long as each province has the same options to choose from. For example, the Federal Government provides X amount of dollars for X model of health care, Y for Y and $0 for Z, and the provincial government then does what they choose within this framework, and gets the appropriate health transfer. I guess you could call what I envision, quasi-symmetrical asymmetrical federalism.

EQUALIZATION however, is different. If the idea of equalization is to allow all the provinces to provide equal levels of service, shouldn't the formula be based on the capacity of all the provinces to provide services. Shouldn't this be an instance where there are no loop holes. Where we don't have 1 or 2 provinces whose formula is tweaked so they can provide higher level of services then the others. Isn't this a little two equal...

But seriously, I'm not really an expert, this is just how I understand the issue. Harper did break a promise... sorta... and he will be paying for it come election time. This is hardly a reason however, to break ranks with caucus on a confidence motion.

I think Mr. Casey was wrong to vote against the budget, especially after he had raved about previously. I think he should be temporarily suspended from caucus, but not permanently expelled. In the name of backbench freedom, I support his decision as I will support Mr. Harper's decision to quietly reinstate him on a long hot day this summer.