O O Ø O O O O
Tory Old, Tory New
Tory Borrowed, Tory Blue.
I’ve been frequently asked about what I think of the newly merged Conservative Party of Canada. In response, I like to give the blank Homer Simpson double-blink stare, followed simply by “I don’t think of the Conservative Party.”
Let’s work through the timeline.
In 1987, Preston Manning started the Reform Party of Canada. Its platform was built on protest: it stood for fiscal sanity, a strong hand on crime, and a voice for the disaffected West. It also had an occasionnally awkward socially conservative agenda. Reform used traditional blue Tory planks, minus anything not of interest east of the Lakehead. (e.g. Official bilingualism.)
In 1992, the Reform party campaigned (along with Alberta Report) against the fatally imbalanced Charlottetown Accord (“Son of Meech”), which helped boost its popularity across the West, to the tune of 52 seats in the 1993 election. Reform also managed to split the small-c conservative vote across Ontario, resulting in the permanent marginalization of the antiquated Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
In the 1997 election, Reform managed to wrest the title of Official Opposition, out of the decidedly disloyal hands of the Bloc Québecois. But the vote splitting continued in Ontario, helped by the persistent perception that Preston Manning and the Reform Party had some sort of hidden religious agenda.
On Doris and Pablum
By now, Reform supporters were tired of being only a protest party, and talk of uniting the right began in earnest. Exit Preston Manning—the best Prime Minister Canada never had—and enter (guffaw) Stockwell Day as leader of the rebadged Canadian Alliance. His much publicized campaign peccadilloes in the ensuing election put a halt to further expansion of the Reform party.
So in its latest move, under pragmatic leader Stephen Harper, the Alliance née Reform Party has reduced its platform to one simple goal: get elected.
Media pundits are waiting to pass judgement: if the newly calved party has too much of the Reform movement in it, they will pounce on the merger as a hostile takeover by the Alliance, and continue to do their best to keep the new Tories relegated to the hinterland. Stephen Harper, however, is too savvy to let this happen. The progeny of the PCs and Reform will be palatable pablum, devoid of anything that might upset the power-granting majorities in Ontario and Québec. This will be seen as sensible bridge-building, much like the so-called Mulroney coalition that swept the original PCs to two massive majorities in the Eighties.
It may be all that. It will also be the death knell for the western movement that called for a change in the way Ottawa worked. The summary of the last 16 years of protest is this:
- The Movement declared a need for serious change.
- The Rest of Canada didn’t want change.
- The Movement changed its demands to be more in line with the Rest of Canada.
- Everyone okay with that?
The message for those of us campaigning for political relevance for the West, is “you can’t get there from here.” The Reform movement resulted in an additional ten years of federal marginalization. What sort of lesson does this teach the supporters of change within the framework of confederation?
It teaches us to find another way.
So now when I think about politics, my attention never turns to the Tories, or anything in Ottawa at all. There is nothing I want to discuss about federal politics until an offer of a triple-E senate is on the table.
So in the unlikely event that I participate in the next Canadian federal election, I’m going to vote for the Pot Party, as the only political choice with a consistent platform for smaller government.
Evan Spence
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
PD DCXXXI