Thursday, January 4, 2001
Alliance acrimony - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- To say the recent federal election’s result left me a little crest fallen, would be a royal understatement. I had pinned great hopes on the Canadian Alliance that they’d somehow bring the Liberal Party and Jean Chrétien to its knees. Sadly that did not happen. In a column I did, oh probably a year ago, I had mused that a wave of conservatism would be sweep Canada, the States and Great Britain, as was the case 20 years ago. Around 1980, Margaret Thatcher was PM in Great Britain and Ronald Reagan had become President of the United States. It wasn’t until 1984 here in Canada, when Tory Brian Mulroney became PM signalling a wave of neo-conservative ideals in the “western” world.
I sensed that with the rise of George W. Bush, and the instability of Tony Blair, that a general shift to the right would occur. A year ago, the Liberal government was mired in a scandal at HRDC. On the other side, there was the on-going campaign to reform Reform into the United Alternative then the Canadian Alliance. It all looked as the Liberals would tip in the polls. They did and Jean Chrétien did what his handlers thought was a dumb idea -- he called an election. It was a gamble, yet for my sake here would be the rise of Stockwell Day and the Canadian Alliance. Turns out the gamble became a masterful political move as Jean Chrétien won his 3rd majority. The Liberals, to their credit, ran a good campaign that was misrepresentation at its finest. With the CBC in tote, Joseph Goebells was alive and well - smear being the operative.
Now there are calls within the Alliance to replace Stockwell Day. A bit of history: Reform, the Western protest party born from Alberta had become Official Opposition after the 1997 election. Sadly, they did so without any support east of Manitoba. Thus, the alternative to the governing party, was merely a Western party. To remove the stigma, Preston Manning, leader, decided to branch into Ontario with the offer to create a new party. This new party however was merely the Reform party now as the Canadian Alliance. Their hopes for seats in Ontario failed. They elected 2 MP’s in a province that saw the Liberals take the other 101. If popular belief is to be believed, Stockwell Day did not deliver. The Canadian Alliance failed and proved that he was no better in delivering Ontario seats than the much less photogenic Preston Manning.
However with a clear observation of the facts, Stockwell Day managed better than Manning ever did east of Manitoba. The Alliance placed a strong 2nd in 80% of Ontario ridings and in Quebec (where they elected no MP’s) their popular vote increased from a paltry 10,000 in 1997 to 250,000 this time around. (To play devil’s advocate, Ontario, vote-splitting is still a factor and in Quebec, the unpopularity of the Parti Quebecois saw reductions in the Bloc’s vote there. The Alliance was a mere recipient of electoral luck.)
Bottom line is that Stockwell Day shouldn’t step down, nor should his party replace him. The party itself was incorporated a scant 104 days when an election was called and Stockwell Day was leader a mere 36 days. All things considered he did pretty good. With time, he could do better.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .