Working at a University, as I for some reason continue to do so, you are exposed to a large amount of political material from various student (and staff) groups. I also know some people who are pretty interested in Canadian politics.

I remember that at one point, I’d see this political speech and think “wow, the ruling party suck, how could they do these things!”. But as I’ve started thinking more critically, I’ve started to notice how sometimes these hot topics are mutually exclusive.

One example:
– BC Liberals have cut millions from student support loans etc!
– BC Liberals are predicting a deficit of over $400 million next year!
– BC Liberals introducing HST – tax increase!
– BC Liberals won’t raise minimum wage!

.. so which would you like guys? you can’t spend money you don’t have without going into deficit. You can’t have the money to spend without cutting programs or raising taxes. You can’t provide services without taxing, etc.

Another example, Federal Liberal blogger friend made a tweet about how the Conservative Party were spending into deficit. But the thing is, stimulating economies during depressions/recessions is best done by government spending.. so spending money in and of itself isn’t bad. At the same time, the Conservative Party (the ones in government) are running attack ads against the head of the federal Liberal party, talking about how terrible it is that he used to live in the US..

Which brings me to the conclusion that as a politician, EVERYTHING you do is going to piss SOMEONE off, and pissed off people ranting sells newspapers and gets viewers on TV. Which is another factor.. newspapers in particular are in a lot of financial trouble these days, and so are fanning the flames of discontent.

I think the trick in being a politician is to make sure you don’t do things that will piss off too many people at once.