Based on today, the Conservatives will have a long reign
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 7:26PM Earlier today I said I thought I was in a time warp with the present Liberal convention reminding me of some of our PC Party ones from the 1990s. As the sessions wrapped up today, I haven’t changed my position. Even a few Liberals thought I made a good point.
Today they had some very informative sessions. One that stands out for me was led by two of Obama’s operatives who played a large role in both rebuilding the Democratic Party and in getting Obama elected. A lot of cutting edge stuff, well thought out and explained. If Liberals thought this was the magic bullet that would lead them back to government, it probably won’t. It was clear that even using their tools, any rebuilding would take years, certainly not months. It wasn’t a quick fix for an ailing party.
At the same time what they suggested implementing requires a lot of money in the initial stages, something the Grits are quite short of right now. It also requires a large volunteer base, I would suggest even the Tories would have a tough time implementing the measures they suggested. But for a political junkie such as myself, it was fascinating to see how they put it all together against strong opposition from the party establishment.
Speaking of which, we are down to the wire in the race for the presidency of the party. Sheila Copps versus Mike Crawley has been an interesting fight to watch. Some Liberals I spoke to thought it was Copps’ to lose and feel she did with her press conference. Others think the old guard of the party will rally to her in the end. I tend to think Copps will still pull it off, but wouldn’t it be something if the membership rallies around Crawley in an attempt to force change on the party?
In the end though does it really matter? The public couldn’t care less about who is the President of the Liberal Party. The only people they see are the leader and the MPs. They judge their performance and look for a party that can deliver on their promises and which can bring forward realistic policies that mean something to Canadians. The Liberals are a long way from doing that.
With merger with the NDP being the forbidden topic at this convention I expect that my feeling of being in a time warp will continue. The Liberals will still prefer to talk about how they are different to the NDP as opposed to how they are similar.
Back in 2002 when Harper first sat down with Joe Clark to talk about a potential merger, as a party researcher, I made a chart (later updated in 2003) of all of our PC and Reform/Canadian Alliance election platforms and matched them up word for word. I did the same for the party constitutions. We agreed on something like 75-80% of the items. I wonder if anyone has done this for the Liberal and NDP platforms. Just how different are they?
Liberals will come out of this convention invigorated. They will have policy conventions that will convince themselves that they have found the way into voters’ hearts. They will wait for the NDP to collapse, they will wait for the NDP to fall into 3rd place in the next election and maybe the one after that too, and even the one after that. All of that sounds all too familiar for me, but it will keep the Conservatives in power.
Ipolitics.ca has excellent coverage of Convention 2012. Be sure to check out their coverage at
Reader Comments (7)
I'd like to know more about that silver bullet? What is it? Why does it take so long and need som much money and volunteers?
I'm curious now.
Think I'll spend some time comparing those two policy books just to see how much the two parties are similar.
From your feedback it sounds like that idea was the elephant in the room.
The Liberals are far more similar to the defunct PCs of old than they are to the NDP. Consider the reality (not the spin) that there was little real policy change when Chretien replaced Mulroney. If the Liberals are smart enough to move their platform right and court disillusioned Tories (of which there will be many as the Cons policies grow more extreme) it is the Harper party that will be relegated to 3rd place in the next election.
the conservatives will lose the conservative vote if they don't start reducing both the size and cost of government NOW. they are worse than the liberals, a 45% increase in the cost of government. how do they get to call themselves conservative?
James
What extreme policies?
Eliminate LGR?
Eliminate CWB monopoly?
Eliminate party subsidy ?
Elected senators?
Accountability Act?
Increased military spending?
Respecting provincial jurisdictions?
James;
The clours in your dreams are more like Picasso's pallete than Michaelangelo's.
You had to go and spoil it by mentioning Joe Clark's name.What a sorry ass leader he was.