Maybe federal Liberal Party members have been looking at the 21st Century from the wrong end of the telescope. Are they being fretful and small minded at a time of wide-open opportunity? Is this current contest just another foolish exercise in personality leadership? What is it that we are doing wrong?
One of the questions we have been asking contenders on their travels through Babel is how they describe a Liberal. Frankly, most have no idea. Martha Hall Findlay actually used the words ‘Liberals are good managers.’ At a time when they have an opportunity to meet and talk with Liberals about their party, these people have been routinely testing their election speeches damning Harper’s Conservatives. It is the only thing they know about. They have never been questioned on their liberalism.
To be honest, the public could care less about the polemics—the philosophy behind our political actions. Not many Canadians would be interested in the party’s idealism. They understand actions. You have to go directly to the hoped for results of your proposals.
Prime Minister Kim Campbell had it right in 1993 when the media claimed that she said an election was no time to discuss serious issues. That was not exactly what she said but the truth is that if you do try to discuss serious issues, you risk a great deal. Unless you frame the discussion very carefully, you have absolutely no idea how the media will handle it. Kim Campbell ended up that election without a seat in parliament for herself or for another 153 former Progressive Conservative MPs.
That was, in effect, the end of the Progressive Conservative Party. Within ten years the Canadian Alliance/Reform Party and the remaining Progressive Conservatives had united as the Conservative Party of Canada. They may have waved a Conservative banner but it was the same old wild-eyed Reformers.
You would think that when the Liberal Party came out of the 2011 federal election in third place, that it was time for review, renewal and change. You would think the party would learn something from the experience.
But it seems nothing has changed. MP Joyce Murray appears to be the only leadership contender to even think about where our party is going. Do the other contenders even think? Is MP Justin Trudeau really going to become leader of the Liberal Party without stopping to understand what liberalism is all about and how it applies in the 21st Century?
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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