It is appearing more frequently. People are addressing and talking about what they call ‘blue liberals.’ It seems to be the new way of talking about the right wing of the Liberal Party. And, yes, there is a right wing. It used to include people like John Manley and Paul Martin Jr. Paul used to laugh it off as he told people to ‘campaign on the left and govern on the right.’ It was how Paul Martin made Stephen Harper Prime Minister.
Michael Ignatieff capped the foolishness when he drove the Liberal Party of Canada down to third party status. This very capable and very intelligent man simply did not understand the modern Canada. He tried to be all things to all Canadians—to embrace both right and left wings—and failed everybody. We paid lip service to his concept of the ‘Big Red Tent’ and let him down.
But we Liberals have always had the seed of our own defeat as a party. It is the myth of the all-inclusive party with right and left wings. This is what fails us. It was the choice of John Turner as leader after Pierre Trudeau. It was the same as the party collectively stepping off a cliff. And then going from Chrétien to Martin; same cliff. The fiction of Paul Martin balancing the country’s books in the 1990s, in a booming economy, ate at the heart of the Liberal Party. The confused message was too much for Canadian voters.
Stephen Harper’s Conservatives currently own the right wing of Canadian politics. And it includes the extremists. It includes those who put property rights ahead of human rights. It includes the fanatics who want to deny women control of their own bodies. It includes those who want to return the death penalty. It includes those who put their religion ahead of tolerance.
Liberal values are different. Liberals have always placed the individual first. It is this recognition of individual rights that has lead the party to Medicare, Old Age Security and to build Canadians’ pride in their country for its peace keeping, openness and reputation for fairness around the world—a reputation that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are now trying to destroy.
The key to a transition of the left is that there is much to add to the Liberal Party from the New Democrats. There is a balanced social democracy at the heart of that party that should become the flag of a new liberalism in Canada. There will be much to repair in our country after the Harper years.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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