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Date Posted: 10:07:24 02/27/03 Thu
Author Host/IP: d150-99-156.home.cgocable.net/24.150.99.156
EDITORIAL - Lonely runner
Thursday, February 27th, 2003
THE federal Progressive Conservative party's standing in the House of Commons is in the low teens -- a mere 14 members. Its standing in the polls ranks at about one percentage point of public support for each of its MPs. The number of PC candidates who have declared their intention to succeed Joe Clark as party leader, however, stands in the high single digits. With the declaration of the Tories' only Quebec MP, Andre Bachand, this week, the number of contenders has risen to seven, or exactly half the numbe r of its MPs.
Not all of those contenders are MPs, of course. Mr. Bachand approaches the starting gate with two others from the Tory caucus -- Nova Scotia MPs Scott Brison and Peter MacKay -- generally considered to be the front-runners, and darker horses from outside caucus -- Jim Prentice, David Orchard, Craig Chandler and Heward Grafftey. Mr. Bachand, a two-term, bilingual MP, gives that race considerable added interest.
This full field of Tories stands in stark contrast to the federal Liberal leadership race, where Heritage Minister Sheila Copps is, at the moment, running uncontested as a lonely longshot. No one expects this state of affairs to continue for any length of time. The point is that it should not continue at all.
Ms Copps will eventually be officially challenged by former finance minister Paul Martin, who has been unofficially running for the best part of the last decade and is almost certain to win the leadership and become the next prime minister of Canada. She may also face a challenge from Deputy Prime Minister John Manley, although Mr. Manley remains coy about his intentions.
In this context, Ms Copps' thundering is welcome. She has openly and usefully challenged Mr. Martin to stop hiding behind his supporters and come out in the open to debate the issues. The same challenge could be made to Mr. Manley and to any others who fancy themselves as the Liberal leader.
Canadians are weary of hearing what people "close" to Mr. Martin are saying. They are weary of Mr. Manley's indecision. They need to hear what these Liberals themselves have to say about the issues of the day; they need to be able to judge whether the Liberal leadership hopefuls can show publicly the courage, the conviction, the commitment to democracy that the Conservatives have already demonstrated in abundance.
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© 2003 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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