Is the Conservative Party of Canada figuratively dusting itself off and saying, “We’ll do better next time?” If they are, they should ask themselves some key questions first. The simple question would be if you were studying history fifty years from now what would be said about the political experience of the last nine years?
Did Conservative ideology—or Stephen Harper ideology—serve Canadians well? Did we fair better financially? Were our rights and freedoms protected? Did Canada gain in prestige with other countries? Did we protect our environment? Do we have better relations with the United States? Did we make any real gains in gross domestic product? Did we improve the lot of the poor and disadvantaged in our society? And how honest are your answers to those questions?
It is interesting that there is a broad field of contenders from the remaining caucus for the job of interim leader of the Conservative Party. The custom is that an interim leader is someone who does not intend to contest for the full-time job as leader. How many possible contenders are there in the weeds for the full-time job?
Okay, we all expect that Jason Kenney will make a stab at it. He will certainly be attractive to the hard-right fringe of the party. Mind you, the last thing the Conservative’s need is another Alberta leader at this time.
And would there be any point to a middle-of-the-road contender to give it a shot? With the Liberals and the New Democrats currently duking it out for the mushy middle ground of Canadian politics, is there any point to getting into three-way mud wrestling?
What is amusing about this is Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall positioning himself for that middle ground. Wall’s Saskatchewan Party is basically a rebranded Conservative Party supported by some right-wing Liberals. It’s only reason for existence is to keep the Saskatchewan NDP out of power. Wall had been in lock-step with the Alberta Conservatives until their ouster by the Alberta NDP earlier this year. It is hard to tell Wall from an Alberta Conservative.
The very real problem for the Conservative Party of Canada today is that it needs to shake the Reform-Alliance loam from its roots and understand the populism and rural roots of John Bracken, John Diefenbaker and Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative Party. Individually they had their problems but added together they had some ideas about Canada that are still pertinent. Though they do need to catch up with the 21st Century.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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