Tired Tropes from Tired People

Now that our PM has let us have our democracy back for a bit, if we promise to play nice, it is budget time. For the occasion, our national paper has trotted out the usual suspects to give the usual advice. Preston Manning tells us we need new institutions for a new century, a message we have been hearing from him for decades. He was fearless leader's mentor,maybe a phone call would be more appropriate.

Jeffrey Simpson suggests we need to raise taxes and cut spending. Herbert Hoover would be proud. With persistent unemployment and a manufacturing sector that will be reeling for years and deflation a real threat, let's torpedo the recovery. There is no threat from government borrowing -- interest on government debt is declining as investors like me look for a safe haven and except for a deranged housing market, there is plenty of slack in the economy. But hey, why think when a tried and true bromide will do.

Finally, Tory retread Reginald Stackhouse thinks we should get a kinder, gentler Steven Harper. No, Reginald, what we need is a new government. Of course this would require an opposition with cojones instead of polsters.

It seems increasingly clear that what is needed here is a generational changing of the guard. The boomers haven't had an original thought in a long time. And yet there seems to be a reluctance, to put it kindly, to bring along young dynamic leadership in any of the parties (or in the press, for that matter). Presumably, there is a crop of bright and ambitious thirty- and forty-somethings somewhere.

It's time.