June 15, 2000
Being right-wing and figuring out - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- The race to lead the Canadian Alliance has been a lacklustre and somewhat boring campaign. As a member of the Canadian Alliance, I will be voting in the election of the new leader on Saturday, June 24th. It’ll be an interesting vote, if not an important one if we believe Preston Manning when he says that CAers will not only elect a new leader, but the next Prime Minister. As chippy as that sounds, I’m not idealistic enough to believe that.
The road to government will be a tough one and in dissecting the candidates for the leadership, it’ll probably be clearer.
If the Canadian Alliance votes in Preston Manning, it will signal to the Canadian voting populous that CA is simply the Reform Party in new clothes. His leadership of the Reform Party has been a steady course to the established guard of power. He hasn’t amounted much to the grandiose “reform” values he articulated and built so well. Once in the trappings of Official Opposition status he moved into Stornaway contradicting the anti-establishment views of “reforming” government and the process to which one got there. Credit is due to him, though for taking this fringe party into Official Opposition status in a decade and paving the way for the Canadian Alliance. His time has run its course and he doesn’t articulate any new message or any new ideals.
If they select Tom Long, a backroom boy of the Big Blue Machine of Ontario and newcomer to the political scene, CAers will be pissing off the entrenched basis of support that Reform has amassed in the West. See, us Westerners hate being lead or dictated to by some damned Central Canadian. The Western provinces of the nation gave rise to Reform and we think we own the monopoly of those virtues and the bragging rights of being Reformers before it was fashionable to be one in other parts of the nation.
Unlike David Frum (who is equally as brilliant as his late mother Barbara,) who is the leading voice for the right-wing in this country, and who has unabashedly come to support Tom Long, I can’t seem to justify a vote for him. First, he’s not a politician and I’m sure if elected he’d work at being one, but if we are to believe that CA is going to go over the top next time, we haven’t got time to wait for Long to work on his politician skills. Also, he’s practically bought his way into this race. On a professional basis by bringing in the support of the Ontario Tories and on an oh-so political way by his using the funds of people like Conrad Black to take the reigns of power for the status quo buggers of Central Canada.
His backers have promised that if Long loses the race, they’ll withdraw support for the Alliance and CA will simply rely on the seats of the West, and that won’t form any sort of government. Ontario is vital not only to the success of the Canadian Alliance, but to the defeat of the Liberals. Without them, CA will stay on the same side of the house for years and years to come. That’ll make the damned Liberals happy.
Dr. Keith Martin is probably the most progressive and appropriate leader for the Canadian Alliance. The pity is that he’s got a meager base of support in the current CA caucus and even fewer people in his home province of BC know who the hell he is. He has made this race, a race of issues, not one of personal vendettas or personal attacks. He’s brought healthcare to the forefront, not only bitching about it, but actually proposing solutions. That’s a good sign, but sadly perhaps he’s a little too young to take on the leadership of the Alliance and the support he brings to the table is not enough to signal viability in what is a three-person race and when he is simply the fourth man.
What can happen though, is that his position will be very strategic should the outcome of the first ballot yield that three or two person tie. The good doctor could very well be in the position of being kingmaker and take the man of his choice over the top.
Stockwell Day is the other candidate. He’s articulate, young-looking, and the exact same age Trudeau was when Trudeaumania swept the nation in 1968. He is the only candidate that’s served in a governing cabinet and has done pretty good. At least, in a position where we in BC can be envious, as he took that economy from bupkis to booming in his time as it’s Treasurer. He’s also bilingual and he could win some well-needed votes from Quebec.
The one thing working against Day is that he’s terribly right-wing. A preacher in a previous life, the life of the cloth has rubbed off on his current incarnation of being a politician. He’s toting out a lot of politically suicidal issues like homosexuality, abortion and the criminal justice system. His hang ‘em high mentality may not boil over too well in the big city, but his fiscal plans sure do. While that hang ‘em high mentality will boil over well amongst rednecks and those of the sort, big city or not.
What is the Canadian Alliance rank and file to do? Support a guy who can whip us into fiscal shape or a guy who just plain whips? I’m willing to take that chance, if for no other reason in that he’ll be able to provoke the apathetic of the nation into giving a damn about the affairs of the state. With a guy like Day who will bring the state into the bedrooms of the nation, his election might signal to the populous that once and for all we don’t want this holier than Thou leader. Because that’s what Day is and at the moment, the nation isn’t registering a pulse.
The other guy, besides Stockwell Day is some power plant worker named John Stachow. He entered the race late and his role is simply that of making the Day’s, Martin’s, Long’s and Manning’s look like dorks. In his meager presence, his bumbling disposition and his inarticulate demeanour, he takes the race into a den of contrast. While the four other candidates are in their well-tailored and well-groomed selves, he’s in a dingy grey suit and long hair, showing us the grassroots side of the party and the race.
The affairs of a party and a nation may be run by a select few of establishment sucks, but the affected masses are simple folk who don’t have to worry about image consultants, backroom boys or speechwriters. The Canadian people are a simple minded folk, who if at the right moment, may get involved and may get a noticing. I can only hope the candidates realise this and keep in mind that behind the rhetoric, sound bites and editorials, it’s all about and for the citizens of this amazing country, whatever the party they belong to.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .