It can be confusing. There is supposed to be a Conservative Party, a Liberal Party, a New Democratic Party and the various also-rans in Ontario electoral districts. Not in Babel. Trying to understand Babel politics is difficult. It is like stumbling on a village called Brigadoon that has been lost in the mists of the Scottish highlands for the past 100 years. The people you find running Babel’s Liberal Party are Whigs.
The Whigs were a political party active in the Parliament of Westminster in London, England from the 1780s to the 1850s. The Whigs had evolved from a loosely connected group called the Country party and were supported originally by the aristocracy. The Whigs were opposed to absolute rule by the monarch and their main opposition were the Tories who had originally been known as the Court Party. It was from these beginnings, that the Liberal and Conservative parties of Great Britain evolved.
But evolution has halted in Babel. Time has stood still here in this town on the bay. The descendants of the original five squires are still in control. Little happens in Babel that misses this Family Compact’s scrutiny. They care less of any difference between Whigs and Tories or between Liberals and Conservatives. They use it as a sham for the hoi polloi to believe they have choices.
Babel’s Family Compact divides the Babel political scene into insiders and outsiders. The insiders are those who are feted, honoured, accepted and elected. The outsiders remain wanderers in the mists of time.
A left-wing Liberal or a Red Tory coming to Babel is quickly labelled an outsider. Only unreformed Whigs are welcome in the local Liberal Party organization. The Conservative organizations, when allowed to exist, welcome monarchists, right-to-life extremists and neo-cons. They are not broadminded, just desperate.
If Babel voters have difficulty understanding the difference between the Conservative and Liberal candidate in an election, Babel’s Family Compact has done its job. The families feel that if they send someone to Ottawa or Toronto to vote for the party in power and these elected people bring back money to pave our streets, they have done their job. They think of the Parliaments of Canada and Ontario as extensions of Babel city hall.
The Whigs of Babel only seem to cross pollinate with their Tory counterparts. They compete for bragging rights, not for principles.
An outsider recently got into the workings of the federal Liberals and created a schism in the organization that came to a head before the recent federal election. The organization had nominated a candidate, raised money and got a campaign group rolling. This was all done without the Family Compact’s approval. That left them with just the Tory candidate, as sad as he might be. As none of this had Family Compact approval, the Whigs deserted the Liberal Party organization. It left the real Liberals in Babel wondering what had happened.
What happened was that the provincial Liberal Party got all the Whigs and the real Liberals were working in the federal organization. That should have worked in favour of the federals but they were left with no time to rebuild before the election.
And with a provincial election due in October, there are growing concerns that whomever the Family Compact picks as a Liberal candidate, there is little time for healing.
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