The United Conservative Party is right-wing.
If it comes to a choice of aiding the poor or rewarding the rich, it chooses the rich.
The UCP has just recently been put in power so how it will behave is still unclear but it seems that it will behave no better than you might expect.
If it comes to going into debt for government expenses or raising taxes, a right-wing government will cut services.
If it comes to raising taxes or going into debt, it will cut services.
It will follow private sector's boom and busts by cutting when things are bad and spending like - well, like lots - when things are good.
When the economy is slumping - right now it is still growing - the cost of everyday living unsustained by job incomes will have to come out of savings or not be covered at all - children will live in poverty.
A right-wing government will look at its bottom line - and not at hungry faces.
Right-wing governments have often used "hard" cures for poverty unrest and labour unrest. These include violent means such as sicking police with dogs, tear gas and guns on protestors. Other violent means they often use are para-military hit squads, juiced-up "special constables" and thugs. In 1932, Premier Brownlee, the second United Farmers premier, ordered something along these lines concerning the December 1932 Hunger March, a protest march meant to demonstrate the need for financial support for jobless workers and destitute farmers during the depths of the Great Depression. His choice was described as right-wing by many.
Left-wing governments on the other hand have often used "soft" cures such as government pay-outs, such as pensions, unemployment insurance, and subsidized services,such as public health care and subsidized child care, that work indirectly to lower the cost of living for all or for many. Although these are often described as expensive and wasteful, they often are not as expensive as intensive crude repression, provide a level of civility and equality that is the hallmark of civilization, and effect savings due to purchasing leverage and efficiency.
Right-wing and left-wing governments also try to modulate the economy to different ends. When the economy is growing the government will have good income from taxes even at the low rates a right-wing government will charge the wealthy, and a right-wing government will spend it to make the economy really rush along - providing great windfall profits and capital gains for investors and land speculators, the friends and golfing buddies of the government.
Then when the economy slows as it does periodically the government will have no savings and will cut services, deepening the doom and gloom.
A left-wing government on the other hand would cut the fat by taxing the wealthy and corporations who can better afford to pay than working stiffs, try to save when things are good and pay out when things are bad to aid people when they need it, and to work to keep joblessness down and people secure and cared for even at the expense of profits and speculative windfalls.
The NDP is a left-wing party; the UCP and other conservative parties are not.
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