Author:
SANDRA BROUDY per jfh
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Date Posted: 20:42:41 05/16/03 Fri
Author Host/IP: d150-99-156.home.cgocable.net/24.150.99.156
Further, our three national parties have, or are presently, engaged in leadership campaigns. This necessarily ensures a dynamic process of change, regeneration and growth is taking place –including within the aged behemoth that is the national Liberal Party.
And yet, Ms. Francis would have us believe this regeneration of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada is counterproductive to the interests of Canadians. She asks us to go away.
This, however, is the political free market of Canadian democracy and here, as elsewhere, there is nothing as constant as change.
The groundswell of renewing support that is the regenerating conservative movement will neither be suppressed, nor diverted by influences that would wish to marshal its direction. Canadians are educated, independent thinkers, famished for leadership. We are reluctant to squeeze ourselves into ill fitting templates.
Canada’s tremendous diversity has constantly challenged our conscientious leaders. Thus, this emerging new generation of conservative political leadership – I expect the intelligent, energetic and talented Mr. MacKay - will be charged with fostering the new conservative dynamic and reaching out to all Canadians with a fresh national vision. It will be ours to ensure the betterment of our valued democratic institutions and Canada’s place in this brave new world for our future generations.
In order to retain any relevance, in politics as in business, one must beware of becoming overly jaded - a ‘toady’ to long held views and vested interests. As for “getting to heaven”: it’s oft been said it takes a little faith.
Sandra Broudy
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Francis' column
PC, Alliance in fierce family feud
PCs should finally recognize inappropriateness of their own existence
Diane Francis
Financial Post
Thursday, May 08, 2003
CREDIT: Andrew Vaughan, The Canadian Press
PC leadership front-runner Peter MacKay is among the candidates who fail to realize the Alliance is Canada's conservative standard-bearer.
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Months ago I turned down an invitation to run for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservatives.
That's because the party's over.
PC coffers are empty, it's run fifth in a field of five and its future leader is the political equivalent of dead man walking. The Canadian Alliance has proven to be the permanent standard bearer for western conservatives and deserves the support of the right.
Unfortunately, some Tories still disagree and to prove it seven people have thrown their hats in the ring. A new PC leader is to be elected at a Toronto convention on May 31.
But this contest is another empty sideshow, as is the Liberal "leadership" contest, which Paul Martin has locked up.
Nothing can derail the Martin Express, but at least the Tories can make a difference.
But only by disappearing, either in whole or in part.
At the very least, the new leader should sit down with Alliance leader Stephen Harper and agree to run joint candidates or to step aside in contests where the PCs or Alliance have head starts. They should agree to form a coalition in Ottawa after an election.
What's frustrating to many is that even those Tories who are running on a promise to unite the right are not a solution: If they were, they wouldn't have run in the first place.
The issue is that Canada's conservatives are bogged down in a fierce family feud, divided along east and west lines. The only way to fix a family feud is to agree to be a family again, then to sit down and get both sides together in order to reach an accommodation or negotiate compromises.
Instead, the Tories have continued since losing power in 1993 to move further away from their political kin. Now, to make matters worse, they persist in doing this by holding a leadership convention and insisting that in the next federal election they will field candidates in all 301 federal ridings.
Once their new leader is elected, the problem won't be fixed even if he has promised to try and merge conservatives.
That's because the new leader, as all leaders, will be surrounded by workers who believe he could be just one step away from becoming the next Prime Minister. While irrational, such beliefs are foremost in the minds of anyone who volunteers to help get someone elected.
Once ensconced, the new leader will realize his biggest "enemy" is not the Grits, but his fellow conservatives from out west in the Canadian Alliance party. Backbiting and sniping will ensue, thus pushing the family even further apart.
This will guarantee that once Martin calls the next federal election, every single Tory candidate fielded against a Canadian Alliance candidate, with a few dozen exceptions, will absolutely guarantee a Liberal victory in that riding.
This is so obvious that if I were the president of the Liberal Party I would be diverting funds to Tory coffers in order to finance what amounts to a stalking horse guaranteed to keep conservatives out of power.
In fact, sandbagging any attempts to unite the right is the modus operandi behind the Prime Minister's "legacy" proposal of campaign reform that would make it impossible for corporations, or unions, to bankroll elections. It works in the following way: If corporations cannot give contributions, they cannot play a role in forcing the Tories and Alliance to unite by backing one over the other.
The Tories have forfeited their position and should accede to the fact that the Canadian Alliance is the standard bearer for conservatives across the country and, as such, deserves to represent them.
Preston Manning turned a western protest movement into the country's Official Opposition and, along the way, proved that he and his party were the only truly democratic institution in the land. He, despite huge electoral success, voluntarily threw his hat in the ring.
This represented true democracy, unlike the sham Liberal leadership contest with three candidates, two of whom totally pull their punches because they want Cabinet seats in Paul Martin's new government.
Meanwhile, the Tories indulge in a mutually destructive debate, calling one another names as well as maligning their conservative cousins. Front-runner Peter MacKay was called to task for describing the Alliance as "radioactive," a word he said was taken out of context.
The facts are that some very heavy lifting by conservatives across this country is absolutely essential to restoring Canada to a democratic country. This is the only way to offer voters a viable alternative. Without uniting the right, regime change is impossible and voter malaise inevitable.
Instead, everyone wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
dfrancis@nationalpost.com
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