The National Post’s Don Martin and National Citizen’s Coalition vice president Gerry Nicholls and many others may be as confused as I am regarding the Conservative Party, or as I like to call it, “huh?”.
Don Martin’s column in today’s NP:
[…] Don’t buy my babble about the Conservatives as the party of scatterbrained confusion. Ask the National Citizens Coalition, the right-wing lobby group Harper personally led prior to re-entering politics in 2002.
“Either they will dither on an issue such as missile defence or they will take positions which seem to out-Liberal the Liberals, such as on health care, or they don’t come out strongly in favour of the need for greater tax cuts,” laments NCC vice president Gerry Nicholls, who has sung many hymns to Harper in the past.
Harper shrugs off the friendly fire, insisting the differences between his party and the Liberals are black and, er, dark grey.
“The country doesn’t need a second Liberal party. We do need a distinct Conservative alternative,” he argues. So what is it? “We are the only party that’s advocating for a stronger military, the only party open to discussing missile defence with the Americans, the only party that advocates deeper tax cuts and more free enterprise.”
Oh really? So why was Harper claiming Conservative credit for the budget’s defence spending boost and tax cuts just two weeks ago? And how come his party has no policy on missile defence other than to wait for more information? The only evidence of enterprising freedom is the party’s spontaneous shape-shifting to fit the latest public opinion polls.
At this point, fair commentary must salute the party’s deep bench strength—a caucus loaded with sharp, edgy and informed critics. Many of them share the NCC’s disdain of their party’s aimless pre-convention performance.
They can only recoil at a leadership which is so terrified of accidentally causing an election, so worried about appearing to be too right-wing and so heavy-handed in tactics, that it’s become a party adrift without a rudder. [… Read the rest (2 minutes) …]
I did warn about not taking a strong full-on right-wing stance!
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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