Facing facts is not a favourite pastime for our prime minister. No doubt there were many old-time liberals who have told him he is heading for trouble. He has made a mess of a one-time strong party.
He said you did not have to pay a membership to be a liberal. You just had to be part of the list. Party members thought it was great to have more worker bees. The more the better.
But then our leader told us we were no longer members of the party we had supported in good times and bad. We were contributing what we could on a monthly basis to the party and yet the party cancelled our memberships. What kind of treatment is that?
Our electoral district associations, where we did not have a sitting MP after 2015, fell into disrepair. Party meetings at the local level were rare and poorly attended. Everyone forgot what it was like to have a quorum at executive meetings. Local party debts were not getting paid. Nobody was shoring us up in these ridings. We became orphans. Nobody cared about us.
All we were to the liberal party hierarchy was a long list to e-mail—as often as three times a day—for money. All their creative energy went to the task of creating new ways every day to say ‘Send Money.’
But what Justin forgot was that, along with the Canadian population, we liberals were aging. Try putting up with all those damn pleas for money when you are a senior on a fixed income? Justin was so busy rebuilding the middle class that he forgot all about the seniors and their daily battle with inflation. Our neoliberal finance minister, Bill Morneau, already has his retirement fund. Maybe he thinks we can inherit our own.
Justin, we gave you the right to lead this liberal party and you get a mixed report card on your effort to date. We had no right to expect perfection and we certainly did not get it.
But we do have the right to ask that you do not repeat your mistakes. Nor do you need to apologize. This job of prime minister is a wonderful opportunity to advance the human experience. You cannot fix the past. You can only fix the future.
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Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
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