I absolutely hate all the cynicism around when it comes to politics. The media thrashed Paul Martin for proposing tax cuts and other programs over a ten year time frame when he was in a Minority position. They are now slamming Stephen Harper – seriously slamming – over his ‘2050’ targets for the environment.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This is not a critique of the Conservative’ green plan. I haven’t read it and I am not qualified to speak to it even if I did.
But I will say that in politics today if the government plans ahead more than 1-2 years they get hammered in the media and by the pundits. As a result, governments are thinking more and more short term and that can be very dangerous when it comes to issues of long term significance. Economic development is one such issue that needs 20-30 year thinking. I would suspect the environment is another. But as I have said before, there needs to be short term targets and measurements. Just saying you will fix the economy in 10 years (Lord) or 20 years (Graham) means nothing without year by year incremental success.