The latest provincial election poll shows the Conservatives marginally ahead of the Liberals but some 37% of voters polled say they are still undecided.

So what does that mean?

It could mean voters have been tuned off by the barrage of promises cascading from both sides of the fence.

It could mean that summer is not over yet and voters are still ignoring the election.

It could mean that Shawn Graham’s Liberals are in the thick of things and Bernard Lord’s Conservatives should be concerned or it could simply mean that people have not changed their minds since the last provincial election.

Whatever it means, one thing is clear, neither leader has been able to communicate his vision for New Brunswick. A promise to cap property assessments is not a vision. It’s a tactical ploy. A promise to invest $100 million Northern New Brunswick economic development initiative is not a vision but it’s a step in the right direction.

Vision is the product of imagination or dreams about the future.

A vision provides a glimpse of how things might be or could be. Sixty eight percent of New Brunswickers are functionally illiterate. A visionary might see a point in the future where 100% of New Brunswickers would be literate. An election platform would tell us how we might get there.

My point is this; a list of election promises does not constitute a vision. It’s simply a shopping cart full of Band-Aids.

Premier Lord promises to provide quality education, better health and senior care, more jobs, lower taxes, affordable energy, a cleaner environment and balanced budgets. It sounds a little bit like motherhood.

Who could be critical of such plans?

The devil of course will be found in the details.

The Premier’s self-definition of vision is planted in his five-in-five plan – a set of goals to be realized over five years. The first of five is the promise that New Brunswick will be known as the “smart province” by 2011. Supposedly, it will earn this reputation by having the largest increase in workers with post-secondary education in Canada.

Is that from 1% to 2% or from 10% to 20%?

Big difference! There is no mention of literacy in the Conservative equation, no definition of “post-secondary education” and no benchmark from which to measure.

The second of five is the Premier’s promise to have New Brunswick known as the “wellness province”. To achieve its wellness reputation, the province will experience “the biggest increase in physical fitness in the country”.

Wow! If everyone is more fit, will waiting times in our hospitals be reduced? How do you measure fitness and how do you measure an increase in the fitness of 750,000 people?

Moving on to number three, we have the promise that by 2011, New Brunswick will have the biggest reduction in water and air pollution in the country. This from a man who boasts of his tight relationship with Stephen Harper, the anti-Kyoto man.

Number four boasts the biggest reduction in poverty rates in Canada.

• What percent of our population lives in poverty?
• Is it ten percent, twenty percent or thirty percent?
• How does that compare to other provinces?
• Would a drop from twenty percent to eighteen percent qualify as the biggest reduction in Canada?

Rounding off the five is the Premier’s promise that New Brunswick will have the lowest tax burden, east of Alberta by 2011.

Does that mean we will also have the lowest level of government services in Canada?

Does that mean our highways will be sacrificed to the taxman? Does that mean that healthcare and education will be under funded?

Nowhere in the Premier’s five-for-five plan is there mention of energy or economic development or job creation. I guess that makes sense because Mr. Lord presided over the Orimulsion fiasco that will eventually cost New Brunswickers about $2.7 billion for the retrofit of Coleson Cove and higher fuel costs estimated to be $100 million a year. This is the same man who took control of NB Power and presided over rate increases of 8.9% between April 2004 and July 2005 and then added another 8% in 2006.

To ease the pain, he has offered to rebate the 8% sales tax on electricity and home heating fuels twice a year. The rebates will come after we have been burdened with payment of the additional 8%. Think about that when you pay your electricity bill for December and January.

That begs the question is there an alternative?

Liberal leader Shawn Graham has been making some me-too promises but he does seem to have a clearer sense of purpose in his platform. He envisions New Brunswick as a self-sufficient “have province”. He sees this province as a continental leader in energy conservation and environment-friendly energy production. He sees energy as a wealth creator not a drain on the public purse.

Mr. Graham recognizes education as the foundation for change. He sees economic development and job creation as essential components of the growth that will lead us to self-sufficiency. He proposes an initiative for northern New Brunswick that would include investments in transportation, communications, tourism and industrial infrastructure to narrow the gap between north and south.

Is he a visionary?

Who knows but he does have a vision of self-sufficiency that is a lot more impressive than a handful of immeasurable goals.

If Graham wants to win this election, he should spend the next few weeks telling people what he will do to help this province become economically self-sufficient.

Everything else is window dressing.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com