A colourful mailing came from the Liberal Party of Canada the other day. It reminded us of the standard mailings by Members of Parliament with the questionnaire slanted to get you to agree with their party’s policies. This one was also a plea for money to help rebuild the party.
But the mailing failed to tell you what kind of Liberal Party it is rebuilding. If it is to rebuild the same Liberal Party that has been in self-destruct mode since the year 2000, why bother? With a leadership convention two years away, the party actually has little time to determine the path on which it wants to be led.
As it stands today, the Liberal Party of Canada is an uncooperative gathering of right and left wing Canadians who stand for individual rights. On that one thing, they seem to agree. They do not all agree on how to protect individual rights but they certainly put individual rights ahead of the property rights of the extreme right wing conservatives. Real liberals also put individual rights ahead of the collective rights that are important to a socialist.
It is the need of the individual for health care, education, housing and employment equity as well as individual freedoms in religion, expression, opinion and orientation that must always concern the liberal.
A true liberal can be described as a social democrat. As this is a direction chosen lately by so many of the New Democratic Party, there is a natural tendency for the two parties to merge as a left of centre political entity. It can hardly be a forced marriage or a marriage of convenience. It can best be an open door.
In Ontario in recent years, we have been witnessing union organizations whose membership has moved the union into supporting liberal positions. It has led to growing union support for the Ontario Liberal Party. These unionists are forced to work as a collective but share the concern for individual rights as liberals.
In a truly liberal country there is no need for a monarchy or for such structures as an appointed Senate. This means, we must work towards a new constitutional structure for our country. And that will be the most interesting challenge for Canadians.
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Copyright 2011 © Peter Lowry
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