| Subject: FIGHTING WORDS I |
Author:
JOE HUEGLIN
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 10:19:05 02/17/03 Mon
Author Host/IP: d150-99-156.home.cgocable.net/24.150.99.156
ESSENTIALS OF A CIVIL SOCIETY AND A CIVIL PARTY
In the perspective of certain members of the PC Party freedom is only for those who share their opinions, if one is to judge by Jeremy Duttons recent letter to torydraft.com. On the basis of his opinion that David Orchards policies are protectionistand out of date, economically nationalist beliefs, he says that Orchard and his supporters should be removedfrom the Party without regard for their democratic rightsand without a Geneva convention(which in wartime governs the status and treatment of captured and wounded service personnel and civilians).
Quite apart from the extreme prejudice of his proposition which either calls for, or assumes that, a civil war is being enacted within the PC Party, there are fallacies in his argument. Firstly, protectionism is not Orchards platform. Orchard favours truly free and equal trade agreements with the United States and the world. Only if equality proves impossible to attain does he advocate the protection of Canadas farms and businesses, similar to the protections currently offered in the United States and Europe, as being something that is a necessity for the very survival of the people and the country. Secondly, this opinion of Jeremy Duttons is not only based on facts which are erroneous, it results in a negative attitude towards the rights of other persons that poses a threat to democracy in the PC Party and to democracy in the Canadian society as a whole: the attitude that those with whom one disagrees should be removedin some way. One can only imagine the circumstances that would prevail if the leadership of the country were to be in the hands of a person who encouraged such an attitude in his supporters. Certainly it would mean a curtailing of freedom of speech, of lawful assembly, and of intellectual thought and expression (which in turn would mean an education system that is subjected to a narrow ideology and controlled by a governing elite). In other words, Jeremy Dutton expresses in his letter an extreme ideology of his own, even though he calls for members of the PC Party who have opinions contrary to his to leave the Party and to throw their support behind what he terms ideologically alignedparties.
Reasonable persons may differ on issues involving trade, but for those who wish Canada to remain a country in which certain civil liberties are taken for granted it would be best if such disagreements were conducted in the form of intelligent and useful arguments, rather than as an attack on individuals and a call for their removal. Furthermore, after the leadership contest is over the members of the PC Party must stand together and convince the nation that they are well placed to lead the country. There is little to be gained in making personal attacks either for the PC Party which needs to expand its base in the Canadian population, or for Canada, a country which must move in a positive direction economically, socially, and politically.
Marguerite Garstin President, Edmonton Centre East Constituency Association
===================
ORCHARD HAS NO PLACE IN THE TORIES
I am not frightened by David Orchard, I am angry and annoyed. Our party has not held nationally destructive policies such as protectionism for almost two decades and we already have the best environmental platform of any national party, including the green-leaning NDP. When Joe Clark said that David Orchard was a "tourist" he no doubt was being timid. If David Orchard truly cared about the advancement of his out of date, economically nationalist beliefs, he would throw his support and organization behind a more ideologically aligned party such as the NDP or Canadian Action Party, that seek these same goals. Furthermore, having first hand evidence that many of his supporters hold memberships in other parties particularly in the ones listed above, I have great scepticism over the nature of his sincerity and little respect for the democratic rights of those party-hopping supporters within our party. The political ambitions of the other leadership candidates, who support the party's fundamental aims and principles, are not the same as those of the man who wishes to bend it's skeleton in unnatural ways, gut its very heart and soul and use it's shell for the purpose of his own uneducated and paranoid agenda.
David Orchard and his supporters have no place within our party, and every political action to remove them is justified. It is time for many in our party to realize what David Orchard does, that for good or bad, there is no Geneva Convention in politics.
Jeremy Dutton lives in Toronto, ON.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 