Friday, November 13, 2015

On The Importance Of Political Renewal



I'd like to share with you a comment made on a previous post dealing with the self-delusion the Conservative Party seems to be engaged in as they lurch toward 'renewal.'

AniO wrote:
The rehabilitation of the Conservative party is vital to our future, however. Sooner or hopefully later, the current government will become old, tired, arrogant and corrupt - the inevitable ravages of power, it would seem. At that point it is vital that we have an ethical and solid alternative to vote for. After the hostile takeover of the PCs, we didn't have and look what happened. How do we get them to thoroughly clean house and reform (pun intended) themselves, and return to their roots of a once-ethical, credible political party with the interests of Canada and Canadians at heart. Our longer-term future may depend on it.
Here was my response:
You make an excellent point here, AniO. A healthy democracy demands a healthy and functional opposition, a party to hold the government to account and serve as a government-in-waiting. Here in Ontario, for example, the Liberal government has been in power for far too long, and has become what you describe: arrogant and old. The most obvious sign of this is the fact that it is selling off 60% of Hydro, which means that they are surrendering 60% of an annual $750 billion in profits, all for a few billion dollars.

When I voted for them in the last provincial election, I knew it was time that they spent some time on the bench, but unfortunately, the PCP under Hudak was never a consideration by virtue of his manifest incompetence, and I could not support the NDP's Andrea Horwath because she triggered an unnecessary election in her venal quest for power.
Renewal is something that must come from within, something that follows a careful and motivated soul-searching, the capacity for which I believe the Conservatives currently lack. While they are no doubt paying close attention to the many notes of grace coming from the new Trudeau government, to emulate the style without the substance will merely continue the blind path the party has been on for so long.

They will have to do much better than that to once again be considered a government-in-waiting.

8 comments:

  1. Without real fundamental change Lorne the CONs will go nowhere. As long as they remain reform/alliance, which is who they really are, Canadians will dismiss them. I think though they feel they don't have to change, because they plan to get elected again by their base as they did in 2011.They have never relied on the Canadian majority to get elected. In order for them to change, they would have to go back to the beginning and communicate with ALL Canadians. In other words they would have to become the Progressive Conservative party. The policies and ideas of their base are not the policies and ideas of the rest of Canada. They and their base are this isolated tribe who above all want to win in the next election. Canadians never want them in again, but if they could think of someway to win even if underhanded or deceptive they would do it in a minute. What they don't seem to realize about themselves is that as a group they have no integrity. They don't seem to realize that Canadians took a third party with 34 seats and gave it a majority to govern with. Everything about that says that Canadians want a progressive government and an open. transparent democracy. This is completely lost on the CONs. They still think they can manipulate their way to power.

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    1. Your points are well-taken, Pamela. The Conservatives have listened to themselves for so long, to the exclusion of mainstream Canada, that they will have a very difficult time coming to any productive insights for a long, long time.

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  2. .. the rump leftovers of Harper Kenney Flanagan Hamilton Tea Party North.. now being fronted by deary Me Rona Ambrose & one supposes - back room money - Big Energy schemers - and cabin boy political science dreamers. Oh ! Did I leave out Old Snot donors & enablers with their 15 dollah tithing as 'Friend send money' ?

    I can barely wait for Ray Novak & Jenni Byrne to very very quietly rise to the surface with their prehysteric & periscopic snouts extended. Both can 'write' a book on their 'service to Canada' to bookend the inevitable flatulent Harper autobiography cementing his statesman feet as a pedestal of demockracy, fiscal genius & military cleverness through fire and water for Israel..

    Canadians and any mainstream media needs to recognize any emergence of the ragtag jackal-pack members for what it is.. scavenging political animals & parasites snuffling snorthing & sniffing for a new host to ride upon.. or hide on..

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    1. Your metaphorical descriptions of the detritus of the Conservative Party sets a new standard here, Salamander. There is nothing more I can add. Well done!

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  3. Lorne, political renewal was behind Mulroney's recent speech but the Reform crowd didn't wrestle control of this party of mutated conservatism to relinquish it to the 'wets' without a fight. The Reformers feel they've already compromised enough when they backed away from their radical social conservative agenda - capital punishment, outlawing abortion, etc. That's why all they're offering now is to be less nasty and it's why they believe they were brought down by perception not policy. The old PC crowd want to reclaim control of the party but they're not sure they have the strength to overcome the Reform cadre. A goodly segment of that PC crowd backed Trudeau in this election and the Reformers are bitter over that.

    It will be fascinating to see who runs for the leadership. By then Harper should be thoroughly damaged goods even within his own party ranks. Will the successful candidate need to be politically virginal or at least willing to openly repudiate, perhaps even denounce, Harper? I think the delay in holding a leadership convention will work heavily against the old guard, Harper's front bench stooges.

    Then there's oil and the East/West conundrum. Harper was always bolstered by this fantasy of Canada as an "energy superpower." That meant Alberta was, as Ignatieff infamously proclaimed, the "beating heart of the Canadian economy for the 21st century." That delusion carried a lot of political clout with the Tory faithful and it carried it straight to the Wild Rose province at no inconsiderable cost to central Canada. There may be an economic reckoning or realignment to roil the waters in this leadership contest and, again, time isn't on the Tories' side.

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    1. Your analysis here provides much food for thought, Mound. I suspect that the party doesn't at this point know which 'formula' will enhance their prospects for a return to power, and hence the absence of any date for a leadership convention. Doubtlessly they are waiting to see how the Trudeau 'brand' does in the medium term before they decide whether or not to embrace the 'sincerity thing.' If Trudeau starts to falter, they will likely see that as licence to end their introspection and return to their default position of being ranting morons, but perhaps slightly nicer ranting morons than in their most recent incarnation.

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  4. All this makes me fear that any hope for a future honourable Conservative party is dim indeed. It's a bit of irony to think the "conservatives" might bring us to one-party rule - by the Liberals!

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    1. It would be an irony that I think would be entirely lost on the Conservatives, AniO, since they are not given to what we like to call nuanced thinking.

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