The Measure of a Prime Minister’s Worth

I find it ironic that towards the end of a PM’s term, or before a coming election we typically hear the opposition or the non-supporting public make the comment; what has this PM done? 

I would give an A+ to any PM who did very little while he was in office.  Why would I do that?  It’s simple really.  Any world leader who “does a lot” while in office almost certainly overstepped their bounds to the detriment of our freedoms.  The overstepping is often quite subtle in this country, often hardly noticeable but that shouldn’t make it any more acceptable to us.

When we as Canadians ask what a PM did for their country we usually imply that he or she needed to create some kind of reforms, or spend money for job creation and public services.  I have started to ask, “Why do we expect that Ottawa has all the answers, and will automatically do what is best for the country?”    

If our federal government does anything, it costs money.  Let me make a correction, it costs us money.  The more a PM does, the more money he has taken from us in the form of taxes and usually spends it on a few who benefit from the new initiative.  This is called legal plunder and we should never encourage this.

The best thing for a government leader to do is to lower taxes, reduce spending and let the citizens run our own lives.  Let the federal government defend our borders, run the courts and keep police on the street.  The majority of the rest we should and can do ourselves. 

It has become a sad state of affairs when so many of the things we have an inherent right to provide for ourselves we now expect the government to provide.  I don’t understand why we insist on letting a small group of politicians make decisions that impact parts of our lives when we can decide for ourselves.  After a few years in power, how can we come to expect that a PM who has his hands in everything will make everyone happy?  Whatever the delivery package looks like, we are essentially asking him to take money from group A and give it to group B. 

Government is force, and however just it may seem, we should not allow a federal government to take and redistribute wealth, no matter what the goal or the end result.  A PM’s true worth should be judged by the level that they allow the citizens of Canada to run their own lives in the manner individuals see fit.  Let’s have the PM defend our borders, run the courts and police.  The reduced spending on services should result in reduced taxes which will usher in a new era of economic prosperity and freedom.