A common lament is that if not for his record as premier of Ontario, Bob Rae would make a great leader. It is said in this regard that he a good debater, charismatic, well spoken, and funny. He is all that and his decision to focus on the big issues rather than minor scandals is a freshening change. But Rae is also emblematic of everything that is wrong with the Liberal party.
Rae has always been an enthusiastic backer of a asymmetrical federalism, collective rights, and equity, i.e., affirmative action. His support for all three shape his ideas about what the Liberal party is and should continue to be.
The first two are wholly inconsistent with Pearson Trudeau tradition and make a mockery of the Liberal's attempt to draw a line from them to present times. Worse, support for both has real political consequences that the Liberals are blissfully unaware of.
Indeed, the Liberals have never fully absorbed what happened to Liberal level of support in Western Canada following the 1974 election. Some blamed the NEP and others have even claimed the gun registry played a part. The latter claim is ridiculous. The gun registry had no impact on the Liberals share of the popular vote or their seat totals. Most important of all it was passed 16 years after the Liberals first showed a significant decline in their level of support. As for the former, the chronology is also wrong. It was the fact that the Liberal vote collapsed in Western Canada in 1979 that paved the way for the NEP politically and not the other way around. The NEP was introduced after the 1980 election. The Liberals took 1 seat in the three most western provinces in 1979 election and 0 in 1980.
The source of the collapse was the more emphasis Trudeau placed on individual rights and a commitment to linguistic equality the more the rest of the country, particularly the West, resented the Liberals' inability to put a stop to bill 178 and and 101 and its willingness to make special accommodations for Quebec. Quebec's Official Language Act spelled doom for the Liberals in Western Canada from the mid 70s until collapse of the Progressive Conservatives in 1993. Ironically, it was the Mulroney's willingness to go even further in pandering to Quebec, particularly the Charlottetown Accord, that gave the Liberals some life again. 60.2% Albertans voted against the Charlottetown Accord, and 68.3% of British Colombians did. The later figure was by far the highest in country and the voter turn out in BC was second only to Quebec.
Let the "coalition" be a warning to the Liberals; these feelings are still deeply felt in "Western" Canada. The Liberals need to learn from history. They need to vigorously oppose the NDP's flirtation with extending bill 101 to federal intuitions in Quebec and their suggestion that Quebec's share of the House of Commons be fixed at 25%.
10 comments:
So is this now OntarioPolitics.com?
Or FederalPolitics.com?
Interesting article but, I don't see what it has to do with nvp.com either except perhaps the reference to the high voter turnout in B.C.
Interesting piece. thanks Koby.
Central Canadian Liberal hand-wringing. No effective party to speak of so trying to become a relavent topic by public angst.
Maybe Koby is "testing the waters" on this piece before publishing it in some eastern rag....I always had the suspicion, given the tone, depth, length and style of his writing that he was actually a journalist in hiding on this blog. Whether or not you agree with what he writes--and mostly I don't--plus the fact that his posts here are totally out of place in most cases, you have to give him credit for what are essentially well written and researched pieces, assuming of course that he is the author!
The best I can say is that he believes what he writes through the highly selective perception of back-east Liberal goggles. The Liberal point of view is irrelevent to the majority in the west.
North Vancouver's own political BLOG dedicated to North Vancouver's political players and the decisions that shape our community.
It's an intersting article but, is way off the above definition of this blog. I've asked Koby to keep his posts to local discussion and text size limits. Either he doesn't care or respect that request or perhaps feels he has nothing to lose except a deleted post.
So delete the post. He doesn't respect the blog, so let him pay the consequences of his lack of consideration.
And just who is Koby anyway?
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