As mentioned in yesterday's post about the Canadian election, a lot of Liberals were well aware that the time had come for their party to leave office. In one sense, it was as necessary for the party as it was for the country. The Liberals need an opportunity to renew themselves, rethink what they stand for and to put their internal civil war (between the Martin and Chretien camps) behind them.
One big problem for a lot of Liberal "party men" was the drift of the party into the left wing territory normally occupied by the NDP. Because the party was being led by leaders without any real vision or values, they advanced policies that they believed were popular...pursuit of power for power's own sake. Their advisors were people who were unconstrained by values either; rather, they were like political advisors everywhere: they only looked for an edge and tried to win at all costs. Since most of the advisors came from Toronto, or Vancouver or other big cities, they adopted the ideas of the big cities. Thus, the "progressive" ideas of the CBC, and the Toronto Star found great favour in the Prime Minister's Office.
And so the party tilted left. The electorate, with no opposition to vote for, elected the Liberals repeatedly. To the Liberals this was a ratification of their policies when,in fact, they were nothing more than a glorified "default" setting on the electoral computer.
The Liberal move to the left allowed the Conservative Party to position itself more towards the centre. This repositioning proved of great worth to them in Monday's election.
Tom Axworthy, who was Prime Minister Trudeau's principal secretary in the early 1980's discusses this in todays Toronto Star. Here is what he says about the Tory strategy and about how the Liberals should reposition themselves:
"...What should Liberals most fear from their opponents? That they would quiet the cowboys and move to the centre. At their national convention in Montreal in 2005, the Conservatives did exactly that — disciplining the party to put on the back burner divisive moral issues, all for the greater good of getting the Grits out. Demonstrating the lessons they had learned from their own loss in the 2004 campaign, Harper put everyone on notice that he was moving toward a Bill Davis definition of conservatism, not Ralph Klein's. In response, the Martin government brought forward a raft of initiatives, almost all of them popular in themselves, but with little inner consistency. The Liberal pudding had no theme...
...Liberals should grant the new government a period of grace, but Liberals should not be so benign with the NDP. When the Harper Conservatives eventually fade, as all governments do, where will progressives turn? Gordon Ashworth, one of the most astute Liberal strategists, advocates that as the Conservatives roll out their agenda, Liberals should constantly remind Jack Layton and the NDP: "We were for daycare, but you wanted an election."...
...But if the Conservatives now have the levers of power, what can Liberals do to change the context? The mantra of the party must be inclusion. Before the party again flies apart into various leadership coups, Liberals of all stripes, regions and generations should once again learn to work together. The way to do this is not to engage in recrimination, but instead to look at strengthening assets — the Liberals are still the party of urban Canada, with not one Conservative elected in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver — and diminishing the negatives by bringing in fresh faces and new voices...
...I have been impressed with the dedication of the Greens — why not a Liberal-Green alliance on the environment? "
Axworthy is both right and wrong. It is true that the Liberals must become more inclusive, but they will not win elections by making alliances with the Green Party. Rather, they must again become more accommodating, and open, to the ideas of those who once made up their core...the centrists. The moderate left and, yes, the moderate right must be listened to. This means that those liberals (and there are a lot of them in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Manitoba, and the parts of Ontario that are not inside the Greater Toronto Area) who are uncomfortable with on demand abortion or gay adoption must receive some respect. After all, it was they who for decades nailed the signs to telephone poles, and canvassed door to door so that Martins, Bevilaquas and all the rest could get their seats.
There is talk that now the Liberals may have a new Kingston Conmference, in which the party can seek to redefine itself. This is a wonderful idea, so long as they don't bring only the left.
It will be very interesting to watch and see what happens.
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