Oct 14, 1999

UA is D.O.A. - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

Joe Clark’s Tories, in their recent convention, loudly rejected Preston Manning’s proposed ‘unite the right’ campaign, The United Alternative. Editorially, I have wanted this entity to succeed, if only to boot these bloody Liberals out of office. Personally, as well, a coalition of the right-wing in Canada would be desirable, but the right-wing in Canada is too far split. The policy of the Progressive Conservative Party, mirrors that of the archaic lessons in social studies, that this nation was founded by the two founding nations of English and French Canada. The policy of the Reform party, on the other hand sees this country, with 10 equal provinces. I like that policy of 10 equal provinces, but with the Reform party, we get that extreme right rhetoric, that harbours close to blind prejudice. The Tories on the other hand, should they get into office again, especially with Joe Clark, will want to cram another Meech Lake-type accord, to appease Quebec and I can’t stand for that. They are too the same, the Reformers and the Tories, yet too apart and the politics of this country will be dominated, yet again, by a bunch of Liberals.

The recent Tory convention also put to rest a proposed riding sharing coalition with the Reformers. That would have seen some joint candidates running in the same ridings, so as not to split the vote. Even though, I would have liked to see them join up, I have to agree with Joe Clark , in that it’s gotta be ‘all or nothing at all’. Both Clark and Manning want to have a right-wing government in power, and they could do it, but they can’t give in to compromise and actually pull the damn thing off. UA is now dead and that’s a shame.

With this boatpeople incident, The Reformers were too hard-line, and I could see them loose a number of their seats to either Liberals or the NDP in this province. BC, could actually see some Tory seats come next election. I’ll go out on a limb and say Joe Clark and the Tories will get a good number of seats. But, it’s too soon for them to get 100-plus. They’ll win in Ontario, some in Quebec and in the Maritimes. Reform will win in Western Canada and the NDP could pick up some seats across the country, but not that much. that leaves the balance for the Liberals, and that amounts to a balance that will steer the Grits back to power. And having the Liberals back in office, will only be equated to the inability of UA to come into fruition.

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