If you do not plan for future events, they will happen to you. Prime Minister Harper might be enjoying the one-year anniversary of his majority government but we have to make sure, it never happens again. Planning must be ongoing.
The good news for the next election is that there will be a re-alignment of seats in the more populated areas of the country. Ontario will be a major fighting ground and it will have 30 more seats to be contested. And most of those new seats can be won by the Liberal Party. They will be carved out of the new suburbs around the major cities. They will be predominantly younger Canadians with small children. These voters represent our country’s future.
And they want the hope and promise of a liberal future. These are people who have grown up with the Internet. These voters are communications savvy and Liberals know how to communicate with them. The women voters are strong-willed, have their own opinions and share the management of the household. And the women are the ones most likely to reject social conservatism. Both the men and women reject the collectivism of unions and socialist parties. The wives share ideas with their neighbours while the men share their lawn implements. Men and women both lean to liberalism with its emphasis on the rights of the individual in our society.
The basic tenets of the 2015 election will be the Canadian belief in the individual’s right to medical services, their right to access to education and the firm belief that Canada’s role in the world is being eroded by Prime Minister Harper’s Conservatives. The only concern for the Liberals will be the question of how far removed by then we will be from the world’s financial problems. The economic troubles were a key factor in Stephen Harper winning a majority in 2011. The only way the Liberal Party could overcome Harper’s economic credibility would be to draft Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney as its next leader.
But the leadership of the Liberal Party should go to the young. We already know the other parties are lead by greybeards. Harper and Mulcair have both exceeded their ‘best before’ dates. They are of the past. The Liberal leader must exude energy and purpose. It is not chronological age we are stressing but the exuberance. Liberalism has exciting ideas and excitement can grow.
The Liberals have to show their new leader leading a spin class, enjoying a 10K run, talking to economists, leading business leaders and comfortable with children. In addition, this paradigm will be invulnerable to Conservative attack advertising because he or she is every Canadian.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to peter@lowry.me
