Tory Leadership Contender Doug Griffiths on the Budget

Nation, it's no secret that I have a lot of love for politicians who blog (now, if only I could think of some bloggers who want to do politics...  oh well...).  I twumbled across a response to the recent provincial budget that was posted by PC Leadership Contender and Justin Timberlake lookalike Doug Griffiths on his campaign website.

Griffiths' remarks, available here, are notable for a few reasons - not the least of which is their tone. While defending the principle behind government spending on infrastructure during lean times when costs are lower (even at the risk of running a temporary capital deficit), Griffiths also warns against operating deficits, and manages to take his own party to task - again and again, in fact - for the lack of a long-term fiscal framework: a guiding document to get us from where we are to where we want to be in 10, 20 or 50 years.

Griffiths, along with Alison Redford, Doug Horner and Ted Morton, might be the next Premier of the Province of Alberta - so if you pay taxes here, it's worth checking out his thoughts.  In the next few days, I'll be reviewing the "un-race for the Premier's Office" thus far.




It's important to note that this blog will - as most of you long-time readers will have guessed by now - not be endorsing or "cheerleading" for any particular candidate during the PC Leadership race. It's my intention to try to offer as objective a viewpoint as possible, so PC Party members and regular Albertans can get a feel for the people running to replace the outgoing PC Leader and Premier. It's why this blog was started in the first place, during the PC Leadership race of 2006.

I should note that I also had a chance the day after Griffiths' leadership announcement to sit down and interview him at what his team was calling a "Blogger Breakfast". Video was taken, but I haven't yet posted it as I'm trying to adjust the brightness setting (shoddy camera work by yours truly). I would be absolutely delighted to offer the same opportunity to any PC Leadership candidate, as well as to any candidate for the open Alberta Liberal and Alberta Party leadership contests.