Balancing the budget the Trudeau Liberals have deepened is going to take many, many years. After the liberal’s almost five years in power, they have increased the deficit substantially. The COVID-19 emergency aid benefits have pushed the deficit even further.
That is why Diverge Media asked Conservative Leadership candidate Derek Sloan about his policies on balancing the budget and his grassroots policy process to vote on proposals in every riding and region.
Sloan’s policy is quoted from his website and says the following:
“Balancing the budget responsibly will take several years, but we can grow the economy to speed up the process. Growing the economy in reality means real people in real communities growing their own local economy. That is why most of my economic platform will be the result of a grassroots policy process to vote on proposals from every riding and region to grow their local economies.”
So our own Gregory Staley, asked him the following question at the Conservative Leadership Fireside Chat in Toronto on July 29, 2020:
“Can you explain exactly what your vision is to grow that process and have the regions and constituents in it vote on those policies?”
He responded to the question saying:
“I believe that as a leader, one of the things that I’m here to do is to serve the interest of the members and I take very seriously the grassroots policy process which typically culminates in a convention where we discuss and vote on these things and with COVID that’s placed some uncertainty about when that next convention will take place. But we need to make sure we have a rigorous policy development process — if need be in a virtual environment leading into this next election,” said Sloan.
Staley followed up with a question asking about public sector spending asking:
Would you on a federal level cut that or would you allow the local and regional constituents under your policy idea to have that say on budget and policy decisions?
Sloan responded saying:
“Well cutting at the federal level must happen. I think that’s something that all conservatives agree with and certainty would be apart of any policy process.
Why is this important?
- It’s unusual that a politician would let members vote on economic policies.
- It’s usually a top down approach, this seems to be a bottom up approach to hear the voices of all Canadians — rather than politicians in Ottawa making the decisions for you.
- It will help with economic recovery which is well needed after the level of spending that has occurred within our current government.
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