Politicians, Promises and Punishment

Andrew Coyne is back, but his blog doesn’t seem to work that well in Opera and even worse in Mozilla. But he had something to say today about the backtracking of Liberals on promise making, and the non-consequences of promise breaking.

Mr. McGuinty responded by suggesting he was not banking on Mr. Martin’s $9- billion health care plan — the centrepiece in his platform — as it was just “a campaign promise.” Mr. Martin raised the ante, insisting that a politician should only promise what he can do, and “whatever you say you’re going to do, do.” Stung, Mr. McGuinty chose this week to announce that he would bring in a bill setting fixed election dates, so that “never again will a premier have the ability to set election dates when it is politically opportune for the government.” Wait a minute: are you saying that Mr. Martin… ?
All hugely entertaining, as I say — almost as good as the debate between Jean Lapierre and Jean Lapierre. But not so much fun for Mr. Martin. Things had deteriorated to such a point that by week’s end the Prime Minister was forced to issue a new promise: that he would keep his promises. If he had not kept at least three of them within two years, he told reporters, he would resign. This raises all sorts of interesting epistemological questions. What does he do if he doesn’t keep that promise? Kill himself?

Mr. Coyne goes on to ask ” How do we hold politicians to their promises?”, and tosses around ideas for a “Truth In Politics” law.
Unfortunately, that would require politicians pass such a law. Absent a coup by Preston Manning, that’s unlikely in the extreme. But there is recall – which has the additional selling point of being flexible enough to remedy the incompetent and/or dishonest.
Or, failing that…