| Subject: The Toronto Star :: Prentice best hope to rebuild Tories |
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Michael Watkins
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Date Posted: 11:18:22 05/26/03 Mon
Author Host/IP: NoHost/216.95.231.206
Prentice best hope to rebuild Tories
The Toronto Star, Editorial
For months now, candidates for the federal Progressive Conservative leadership have been crisscrossing the country trying to convince party members they are they best person to lead the party out of the wilderness.
It's been a lonely road for all them as they spun their uninspiring and unexciting views to minuscule crowds, to bored television audiences or to the occasional reporter who bothered to ask them any questions.
Such is the state of this once-proud national party, which 10 years ago was in power in Ottawa and now is reduced to the equivalent of a rump party with just 15 seats, most clustered in Atlantic Canada.
On Saturday, Tories will gather in Toronto to decide which of five candidates is the best choice to replace outgoing leader Joe Clark. The selection is critical because it could spell the party's salvation, or its total demise. It will be a tough call because none of the five contenders is the perfect choice. All are flawed in some way.
To us, though, Jim Prentice is the best candidate in the field.
Prentice, 46, is a Calgary lawyer who has spent years working as a highly regarded party organizer. He has never held elective office. Born and raised in Northern Ontario with a law degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, he would bring a truly national perspective to the post.
Considered by most Tory observers to be the smartest, most energetic candidate in the race, Prentice has developed thoughtful policies to encourage investment and innovation, to help cities get a fairer share of overall tax dollars, to restore acceptable levels of military spending.
One major concern, however, is that Prentice, like all of his opponents, favours a greater role for the private sector in the health-care field.
Peter MacKay, a Nova Scotia MP who is the acknowledged front-runner, has been a major disappointment. During the campaign, he has outlined no real vision for the country, no bold new plans for the party. His critics are right when they dismiss him as the "status quo" candidate. In addition, MacKay, 37, has a troubling history of sudden flip-flops on key issues, such as when he threatened to defy the law and not register his firearms, but then changed his mind at the ultimate last-hour deadline.
Scott Brison, a 36-year-old Nova Scotia MP, is bright, with many fiscally conservative policies, such as tax cuts, that appeal to Tory voters. He also is a moderate on social issues, such as decriminalizing marijuana. But his support for two-tier medicine is too extreme for most Canadians.
David Orchard, a Saskatchewan farmer, is making his second run at the leadership. His biggest theme is to revise the free-trade deal with the U.S., which makes great sense in many instances. But Orchard is primarily a one-issue candidate, albeit an important issue.
Craig Chandler, the remaining candidate, ran for the Reform party in the 1993 federal election, which tells you all that you need to know.
Regardless of the outcome Saturday, it is vital that the Conservatives rebuild, because just as Canada needs a strong, viable left-wing alternative to the centrist Liberals, it also needs a reasonable right-wing alternative. That role should fall to the Tories, not the hard-right Canadian Alliance. [(c) Toronto Star]
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