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Date Posted: 11:59:08 05/29/03 Thu
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The Winning Formula: Is a younger fresher Tory face the key to reviving the sagging party? They're set to choose their fifth new leader in ten years. A preview from Leslie
CBC News and Current Affairs
Wed 28 May 2003
Time: 22 h 00
Network: CBC Television
WENDY MESLEY (HOST):
The Winning Formula: Is a younger fresher Tory face the key to reviving the sagging party? They're set to choose their fifth new leader in ten years. A preview from Leslie Mackinnon.
UNIDENTIFIED:
It's in debt, its membership is down, its new leadership candidates are largely unknown.
WENDY MESLEY (HOST):
And the five men vying to lead the Tory Party have differing ideas on how to change that.
UNIDENTIFIED:
This idea that we would merge offer with the alliance would mean -- that would mean the end of the Progressive Conservative Party.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Face to face discussions will occur.
WENDY MESLEY (HOST):
Leslie Mackinnon previews this weekend's leadership vote.
JOE CLARK (CONSERVATIVE LEADER):
I've carried the party I think as far as I can.
WENDY MESLEY (HOST):
Tomorrow, Tory delegates begin meeting in Toronto. By Sunday night, they'll have chosen a new leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. They've had some practice having chosen four others in the past ten years, but this time, the slate has a different look to it. For the most part, the candidates are young, young and inexperienced charge the critics. Young and exactly what Canadians need in a leader say supporters. Whatever the case, each candidate believes he has what it will take to bring the Tory Party back to life. Here's Leslie Mackinnon with "The Winning Formula."
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
It has been ten years since the great Progressive Conservative Party of Canada almost vanished. Its leader defeated, and the humiliating two MPs left standing. Now it's looking for its fifth leader in the space of a decade.
JOE CLARK (CONSERVATIVE LEADER):
I've carried the party I think as far as I can.
UNIDENTIFIED:
I intend to win the leadership of this party.
UNIDENTIFIED:
I'm ready to leave this party.
UNIDENTIFIED:
I'm in this race because I'm concerned...
UNIDENTIFIED:
I want to lead this party, this Progressive Conservative.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
That ten-year anniversary is symbolic, the party thinks, maybe even lucky.
UNIDENTIFIED:
It's partly the age thing.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
And there is something else. In sharp contrast to another leadership race, in this period of profound political change, these men are by and large young.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Get ready for your close-up.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Critics would say no one more seasoned wanted to run. Others would say this is the new face of the party.
UNIDENTIFIED:
You missed a spot. Cover up some of those bags.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Look at the baggage there.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
You have a bunch of guys in their 30s.
PETER VAN LOAN (FORMER PRESIDENT, PC):
And that's terrific. I think that's a great thing. If you ask yourself right now who is the Liberal Party run by, it's run by the same people who ran it in 1968.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Peter Van Loan is a former president of the P.C. Party and claims he's been a follower of the Tories since he was 9.
PETER VAN LOAN (FORMER PRESIDENT, PC):
What happened was the baby boomers got old and they still think they're young. The fact is we're finally getting the long delayed generational change.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Blues brothers.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Men in black.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Men in blue.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
It's in debt, its membership is down, its new leadership candidates are largely unknown, but it has going for it is this: The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada is the only other party to ever form government in Canada. It has just a few scenarios left now, becoming completely irrelevant, rebounding, or uniting with that other conservative party who contributed to its ruin.
UNIDENTIFIED:
See if you can stop my nose from locking looking like a sundial.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
The front-runner is Peter Mackay. He's a former crown prosecutor, first elected in his father's old riding in 1997. He's an avid rugby player, and perhaps the rough and tumble of the game translated in to his aggressive performance as House leader. When Jean Charest left to run in Quebec, he asked Mackay to consider the leadership of the party. At that time, he declined. So what changed your mind?
PETER MACKAY (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
Well, some maturity, and I guess further experience within this wonderful world of politics. And it's been a question that you may be leading to. Do you have the fire in the belly? This is a question that I'm sometimes asked.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
You mean people think you don't?
PETER MACKAY (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
Well, I didn't get here by laying back and by taking it easy. I think I've worked pretty hard.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
As a teenager in 1984, he witnessed Brian Mulroney's Tories sweep to power with one of the biggest majorities in Canadian history. By the time he entered politics, more than a dozen years later, the party was already reduced to a shadow, in part because of the reform party's strength in the weSt. By the summer of 2001, Mackay had taken on a prominent and risky role in joining the democratic representative caucus, which was an attempt that would ultimately fail at parliament area cooperation between the PCs and some Alliance members. A single and moderate right wing party has become a sort of Holy Grail to many conservative thinkers, and the challenge for a new leader is to try one more time.
PETER MACKAY (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
If it was easy to work this out, it would have been happening a long time ago.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
It didn't help, he says, when Stephen Harper called Atlantic Canada, the Tories' base, defeatist and dependent.
INTERVIEW:
It's akin to the ad they ran with the slashes through the Quebecers' face. That kind of divisive political approach doesn't work in the country and it's why in my view they can't win. They'll never form a government. They can prevent us from forming a government if that's their objective, but they can't form a government.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
But Chris Waddell of Carlton University thinks the alliance lately may have become more palatable to Tories, and this transformation is happening under the leadership of Stephen Harper.
CHRIS WADDELL (CARLTON UNIVERSITY):
He's come back and taken out all those people you can describe as being permanently mad about almost everything and replaced them with a younger group who are asking smarter questions and are much more presentable people, a whole group of younger people who are putting a different face on the alliance. It may give them more credibility with the electorate, but it may also make it easier with a new group of people to find some sort of alliance or coalition with a new group of Tories as well.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Let it be clear that for now, Peter Mackay is not pushing for an out and out merger. All he says is he's tried before to bring the parties together.
CHRIS WADDELL (CARLTON UNIVERSITY):
Face to face discussions will occur, and maybe we need to involve some wisdom and some individuals that have perhaps a broader view who are outside of this partisan political cauldron that we live in. LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Give me an example.
CHRIS WADDELL (CARLTON UNIVERSITY):
Having an individual like Peter Lougheed, for example, who, you know, clearly has a good understanding of not only Western Canada, but all of Canada and our party. Entering in to this almost like a labor negotiation and saying what can we do here? What's feasible? What's acceptable? And what's in the best interests of Canada?
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
The candidate that's by many miles the least party establishment is David Orchard. Here, it's after prayers, and he's on the campaign trail in the hallway of the largest mosque in Toronto.
DAVID ORCHARD (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
Far more people have voted against free trade than for free trade.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
He fought passionately as a private citizen against Mulroney's free trade deal in 1988. But he always identified himself as a Tory and ran for the last leadership race against Joe Clark.
DAVID ORCHARD (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
No to Meech Lake, no to the Charlottetown Accord, no to the sell-out of our country, no to what Brian Mulroney did to this country...
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
And he came second. Now he's again in second place, a tireless campaigner who constantly promotes his anti-war, anti-free trade, pro-environment positions.
UNIDENTIFIED:
I give mine to Mr. David Orchard!
UNIDENTIFIED:
Hello there. It's a pleasure to be here and meeting with you today. I'm a farmer from Saskatchewan...
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
He sees himself in the mold of Sir John A. Macdonald or, his personal hero, John Diefenbaker. Those were the true Tories, he says, nationalists and left wingers. He rejects Brian Mulroney's legacy. Some in the party think that if David Orchard wins, that could be the end of the Progressive Conservatives.
DAVID ORCHARD (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
This idea of me being an outsider, I ran for the leadership of the party in 1998. As we mentioned, I was the runner-up. I'm running again now for the leadership. I have brought in tens of thousands of members, hundreds of thousands of dollars of dues and donations. So this is some outsider. I'm in the party, I've paid my dues.
UNIDENTIFIED:
It's a sad reflection when a political party is in decline and vulnerable. I'm hoping we're now facing a renewal when after this leadership when Mr. Orchard has now lost twice, people will stop looking to him as a significant player and will be back to what is the traditional Progressive Conservative Party and members will feel more comfortable returning.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
So far, the other candidates have treated him gently. As for joining forces with the Alliance, he thinks that's the kiss of death.
INTERVIEW:
Well, where is the alliance today? The alliance policies of seeing us jump holus-bolus in to our powerful neighbor, do whatever our neighbor is doing as if we were simply an extension of the United States, those policies have put the alliance in to freefall. They're at what, 10% in the polls. This idea that we would merge off with the Alliance, that would mean the end of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Maybe we need to get some of that message out.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
In third place so far is Calgary lawyer and businessman Jim Prentice, a long-time party member who put off entering in to politics to first raise his family.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Mr. Jim Prentice.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Like anyone running from behind, he's been attacking the head of the pack, Peter Mackay.
JIM PRENTICE (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
You have campaigned in western Canada and said to people with the Canadian Alliance that they are radioactive. That's not respect, inclusion, that's not drawing people together.
PETER MACKAY (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
The truth of the matter is in parts of the country, there is a policies of the Canadian Alliance are radioactive.
JIM PRENTICE (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
It's not personal in any way. I hold Peter in the highest of regards. The question is does he have the communication skills to be the leader of the party? That's one of the requirements that it's going to take.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
This is pretty standard fare in a leadership campaign. But it's not sitting very well with Peter Mackay. You should show that you can fight back?
JIM PRENTICE (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
I can fight back with anyone. There's also a time for doing that.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
But not in a debate?
JIM PRENTICE (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
Well, not amongst fellow conservatives at a time when we know that unity is one of our most important issues right now for the party.
UNIDENTIFIED:
I say we need to lower the temperature.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Jim Prentice says he is the candidate who can smooth relations with the Alliance Party. As far as it goes on details is that he'll lower the temperature in the dialogue.
INTERVIEW:
I am never insulting to Stephen Harper or the Canadian Alliance or anyone else because we're trying to broaden our party and build a bigger and deeper party. But what would we sit down and talk about? We would sit down and talk about things we have in common and ways we can focus on defeating the liberals.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
What would that mean? Would it mean joint candidates?
JIM PRENTICE (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
I think it would mean we need to sit down, have those discussions, and determine where there are areas of common intereSt.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
This is about as specific as anyone gets. The fourth runner, Scott Brison, says he'd like to build a new P.C. Party with Alliance members as equal partners.
SCOTT BRISON (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
Some of those people have said, well, what about changing the name? To which I respond, don't you vote for P.C. Parties on the provincial level? They say yes. It's not the problem with the name. The symbol's not the problem. It's the substance.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
As an underdog, he's also been nipping at Mackay.
SCOTT BRISON (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
That's what they're looking for, Peter. They're looking for and they have criticized our party for not standing for anything. I think that's your problem is that we don't know and Canadians don't know what you stand for because you flip-flop on issues depending on the time of day or depending on where you are in the country.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Here, Brison and his team are prepping for the convention weekend, and it's hard to tell whether they're completely serious.
UNIDENTIFIED:
What is the theme of this game show?
UNIDENTIFIED:
It's, like, who wants to be a leader or something, and then when they ask a question, then there's a wheel that they spin and it's like wheel of fortune or something.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Just tell me that one of the candidates aren't, like, taped to the wheel! I get sick really easily!
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Brison is 36 and was elected as a Nova Scotian MP. when he just turned 30. A former stockbroker, he'd like to cut regional development in Atlantic Canada and create a low tax zone, and he's openly gay.
ELSIE WAYNE (PC DEPUTY LEADER):
Why are they in parades? Why are they dressed up as women?
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Scott Brison says he would have fired Elsie Wayne for her anti-gay remarks. Some people think Brison could no longer even work with her in caucus.
INTERVIEW:
If you think Elsie was being outrageous on the floor of the House of Commons, picture her behind closed doors. That was pretty calm.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
That doesn't bother you?
SCOTT BRISON (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
My skin's so thick, I don't even use sunscreen!
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
There is one other candidate, Christian lobbyist and businessman Craig Chandler who advocates a complete merger between Alliance and Progressive Conservatives, but he's attracted only a handful of delegates.
CRAIG CHANDLER (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
This party will be nothing but a debating society if we do not work together with the Alliance.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Such is the fate of merger candidates.
CRAIG CHANDLER (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
Politics is about change...
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Remember the Alliance leadership race a year ago? The two candidates who ran on a merger ticket were annihilated. So why is this idea still alive?
CRAIG CHANDLER (CANDIDATE, PC LEADERSHIP):
In large parts of this country, there are significant number of small "c" voters, Conservative voters who, if there were one party rather than two parties representing small "c" Conservative interests, and I mean the Alliance and the Conservatives, they would likely be winning seats that they're not winning now, and that's a question they all have to think about, about what they want to do about that or if they really think it's important to do something about that.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
But, after all, it was the Tories who just won an important by-election in Ontario. It's the Tory Party that's inching up in the polls while the alliance is microscopically sinking. It's these pluses and minuses on either side that results in each party saying to the other, give it up and come over to us, with neither willing to compromise. Peter Van Loan concedes that if the two parties don't unite, the Conservatives could come back on their own.
PETER VAN LOAN (FORMER PRESIDENT, PC):
The one thing you know is that it's a lot tougher, and it may take, you know, two or three more elections.
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
Even then, he says, it's doubtful that Tories by themselves would be more than official opposition.
PETER VAN LOAN (FORMER PRESIDENT, PC):
If you put together the parties and you had one conservative party again, people say to me, can you guarantee me a win? I say one out of three times. But I can probably guarantee you a win zero out of three times as long as they're split. It takes pulling all the pieces together for conservatives to win in this country. It's always tougher for us. You have to work harder, build better coalitions, have better policies and better leaders and then we have a chance of winning.
UNIDENTIFIED:
Could you unbutton your jacket? Look a little more relaxed!
LESLIE MACKINNON (REPORTER):
It's no exaggeration to say this party, whoever becomes leader, has one more election. If it doesn't rise again, it could disappear. (Bells tolling) Its rich history, its impressive record is riding on that. For "The National," I'm Leslie Mackinnon in Ottawa.
REX MURPHY (NEWS COMMENTATOR):
It's a busy time in Canada. The country is roiling with torments unknown since the day of pharaoh. Mad cow disease sounds like Monty Python but it's far more grim than comic. It's mixed with the threat of West Nile virus. That would make a good "b" movie, "attack of the killer bees" variety were it not potentially so serious. And Toronto is facing S.A.R.S. II, the sequel. This global frightener has come back to Toronto a second time, scattering the sense of optimism and satisfaction that had settled here when it was thought that the outbreak had been contained. There's anger in Newfoundland and New Brunswick among the fishermen, and in Ottawa, the great machinery of government is struggling with the immortal question, to toke or not to toke. The greatest minds of the liberal government are straining themselves to the utmost to find that perfect place where pot is decriminalized but remains, for all that, totally illegal, legal to have but not legal to get. There is much more, of course. The liberals are molting. To describe what's going on as a leadership is a misleading impression. They are, rather, shedding one leader as they acquire another. Paul Martin is reaching for his inheritance at the same time as Mr. Chretien is building his legacy, and the two are very much not the same thing. Amid all this flurry and turmoil, mad cow, missing fish and Mary Jane, can it be any wonder that the leadership race of the official conservative party has not jammed the news or stolen the headlines. It's not for want of candidates. They've at least five. But however many, they've been drowned by bigger news, and what is more pertinent, however kindly one feels towards the grand old party, it simply is not what it used to be. By a gale force irony, the most successful Tory leader of modern times, Brian Mulroney, accomplished both its greatest landslide and consigned it to near extinction. That, coupled with the great schism, the formation of reform, now alliance, pushed the conservative party first to survive and now to prove that it can reclaim its historic place as the dominant alternative as a national government. The temperature of this race so far, even the performance of its two acknowledged leaders, Peter Mackay and David Orchard, clearly indicates this has not been achieved. The principal problem of the Progressive Conservatives today is not the choice of a leader this weekend, but regaining its hold on The National imagination and its stature as a pre-eminent political entity. What this weekend's race will establish is the selection of one person whose central duty will not be to win the next election, but to so rehabilitate the party and end the fracture among all conservatives that in the election beyond the next, the Canadian public actually has an alternative. This is either the Tories' last real chance or the beginning of the endless reign of Paul Martin. For "The National," I'm Rex Murphy.
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