Political climate points toward a decade of decent government
Liberal leaders Jean Chretien and Paul Martin took their parties and governments first into the gutters and then into the sewers in absolutely unconscionable and shameless ways.
The corruption of the Liberal machine was not only the corruption of financial fraud, but corruption of the very soul of our nation. The tarnishing of our traditions, and the besmirching of our allies.
The Liberal party, and just about everyone connected with it, needs to be cleansed and that will not be done easily.
My friend, Calgary South Centre MP Lee Richardson, predicted in my column “Cleansing time” (Jan. 8) that AdScam is simply the tip of the Grit iceberg of malfeasance and more skeletons will soon start teeming out of the closet.
One of those skeletons, Richardson believes, will involve former justice minister Allan Rock’s $2-billion gun registry.
He wonders how much of that staggering figure went to Grit-connected advertising, public relations and polling firms?
Theirs—Chretien’s and Martin’s—were governments in which ethics were not valued highly.
Former prime minister Lester Pearson—high-minded in every respect—would be appalled at what has become of his party.
Yet there is seemingly no Pearson in the wings about to come forward and cleanse and rebuild the disgraced party.
My betting is no one of any consequence—certainly no one of conscience—will want to take the steering wheel of the Grit vehicle for some time to come.
It’s too harrowing an undertaking—and, aside from the scandals, there are rumours 10 or 12 Liberal MPs on the party’s right may follow B.C. MP David Emerson and cross the floor and join Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives when Parliament reopens.
That would be a shattering event: Harper would gain 10 or 12 new votes, and the Liberals would lose 10 or 12 votes. In reality, that’s a difference of 20 or 24 extra votes in the Commons.
Already, the supposed saviours—former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna, former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin and former deputy PM John Manley have all edged away.
How long before former Ontario New Democrat premier Bob Rae meekly does the same?
To the nervousness of potential candidates over revelations of new scandals, potential contenders must know Harper and his Conservatives are certainly going to be in power for the next six years, and likely the next 10-12 years.
Harper’s cabinet line-up was a canny piece of political strategy which, come the next election, will help propel the Conservatives to majority status.
The 10 seats the Conservatives picked up in Quebec—and the 25% of the vote they won there—portend substantial gains the next time around.
Let’s suggest 30 seats—easily.
Harper will also prove to doubting Ontario voters—who fell for the Liberal fearmongering—that he is a steady and stable individual and worthy of governing our nation.
The 40 Ontario seats Harper won on Jan. 23 may well turn into 60 seats.
All this is aside from the possible scenario of a mass Liberal defection come April.
Right now, the Liberals are $30 million in debt
The New Democrats are $10 million in debt.
Harper’s party has $10 million in the bank.
The Conservative plan to ban corporate and union political donations and restrict personal donations to $1,000 a person a year—and the sooner they do this the better—mean the coffers are bone dry for the Grits and the socialists.
You can’t run a federal campaign—the mammoth blanket TV campaigns the Grits prefer—without big money.
And there’ll be no slush funds akin to AdScam this time.
Which is why we are hearing no-name candidates such as lacklustre former immigration minister Joe Volpe and lacklustre former justice minister Martin Cauchon nibbling around.
Former human resources minister Jane Stewart has the $1 billion bogus job-creation scheme as her dark claim to infamy.
Zany heiress and political traitor Belinda Stronach?
She’d be another Kim Campbell—good only for giggles.
Harvard academic Michael Ignatieff is hardly likely to toss away his cerebral inclinations for dirty backroom scuffles and non-stop door-knocking among the peons.
So, my friends, get ready for a decade or more of solid and decent Conservative government.
And, boy, have we earned it!
- Suzuki playing gutter politics - Sunday March 4, 2007 at 10:41 am
- Grit record terror-ible - Tuesday February 27, 2007 at 9:51 am
- Britain’s Blair takes tumble - Sunday February 18, 2007 at 10:53 am
