Strange Politics

It's a strange political season. Who'd have guessed 11 years ago, that most lifetime Tories would be left today without a party to represent them?

And who'd have guessed even a year ago that a lot of lifetime Liberals would be losing faith in that party?

What happened to the Tories is a matter now of public record, having been swallowed up by the Canadian Alliance, which graciously changed it's name to the Conservative Party of Canada. But then again the Canadian Alliance has absolutely no traditions or values, and changing it's name is just the way they prepare for an election.

Anyway, the "Party of MacDonald" ended it's existence in January 2004.

As I said at the start of this crappy excuse for political discussion, many Liberals are finding themselves unable to support their party as well. The new PM, Paul Martin, spent so many years campaigning for leadership of that party and pushing the old leader to retire, that now that these goals have been achieved, Martin's team doesn't know how to do anything but alienate the longtime party members who were loyal to the previous PM.

The latest (ipsos reid) polling numbers show the party at 35%, which still has them in first place and there is still no real risk of them losing the next election, but it's the lowest numbers the party has had since Kim Campbell was PM.

And most recently Paul Martin has been making some interesting decisions (to put it charitably), including a decision to woo Quebec separatists into the party. I'd like to know what Jean Charest has to say about that.

In fact I'd like to know what Charest has to say about a lot of what has been happening on the federal scene in the past year, especially to his PC party. He has made no public statements that I'm aware of, and I can't even guess where he stands on this. Wikipedia has an interesting look at the relationship between the provincial parties and the new Conservative Party here, but I digress.

Recently one of the Liberal Party's most faithful and stalwart soldiers, Warren Kinsella (see sidebar), has expressed his displeasure with the direction Martin has taken the party, and has stated that as things stand today, he will be unable to support his party federally this time around. This could be overlooked if his was the only voice saying the same thing.

Which makes me wonder. Historically, despite what some of the die-hards in the parties may have believed, the PC Party and the Liberals have always been closer in philosophy than either party has liked to admit. I'm too lazy to come up with a lot of examples and back them up, but free trade is probably a good example of a policy which the two parties have historically swapped positions on from time to time. In the early 1960s, it was the Libs who advocated free trade with the US, while the Tories were opposed. And anyway, I said I wasn't going to get into examples, so just believe me or else.

The best way to describe the philosophy that the PCs and the Liberals have always shared was the philosophy that you can say and do whatever your little heart pleases while sitting in the cheap seats, but once you are in power you have to do that which is best for Canada and for Canadians.

Anyway, what was I going on about again... oh yeah, I think I was going to say something wise about how it would be interesting if the disaffected party activists in the PC Party and those in the Liberal Party got together, in some sort of "Canadian alliance", and created some sort of tent for people who care about this country and are sick of the political games that are being played out by the major parties that seem to have stopped representing Canadian interests. The success of this entity (I don't want to say "party") would be helped along if it had some endorsements from folks like Joe Clark, Dalton Camp, Jean Charest, Jean Chretien, Justin Trudeau, etc.

Anyway, it's a nice idea, but not likely.


I think I'm done. While writing this it occurred to me that in a small way the current political season may be proving right one of the old Reform Party slogans:

Liberal Tory, same old story.