It is a sad comment on the current state of the Liberal Party of Canada that a caucus of members of parliament and senators would involve more senators than elected members. Call it a low ebb for the party, if you wish, but the tide is about to change. The party is heading into a leadership contest that can set Canada and the party in new directions. And it is an ideal time and opportunity to redefine liberalism for the 21st Century.
The success of liberalism in the 20th Century was largely due to the success of a growing middle class in North America. Liberalism became increasingly popular because of its belief in the rights of the individual. Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy in the United States and Pearson and Trudeau in Canada offered the individual new freedoms and new entitlements. Liberalism made its greatest advances when dealing with the social standards and equality of opportunity.
But what surprised many of us middle class liberals was the vehemence of the opposition. We were told that liberals were too soft on the poor, the disenfranchised, the workers, the unionists and those who served the public. Our list of entitlements for the individual was considered unrealistic. Keynesian economics was vilified. The word liberal became a curse word in the mouths of the hard right and their ignorant followers.
In our trials, we let the nascent right wing of the Liberal Party become more powerful. We let this sneering right agree to campaign on the left so that they could rule on the right. They broke faith with the party. They broke faith with the voters. Nowhere was this more evident than in the party’s provincial rumps. They tried to save themselves by being more right of centre than their opponents.
For liberalism to meet the needs of Canadians in this century, we have to stay to the left. We have to welcome the true social democrats from the New Democratic Party. We have to talk entitlements. We have to offer the dental and national drug plans that people need. We have to ensure that education is free to everyone. We have to make it clear that we are the party that cares about the individual in our society. We have to make it clear that it is not an argument between big government and little government. It can only be based on good government.
The right wing sycophants of Stephen Harper are hurting Canadians in the name of political dogma. This is hardly good government. The NDP is a party dominated by the big unions. Big unions are not always progressive. Only the Liberal Party can properly represent the individual Canadian. We need good leadership to do that.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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