Best Laid Plans of Liberal Leader Aspirants
Who would've thought? Lots, I suppose. Political pundits. Convention groupies. Those in the know. Although, truth be told, none of them really thunk it. Lots of guessing this and that scenario, but generally speaking (ha!) it's a crapshoot. Who, after all, can guess the mind-manoeuverings of all those delegates who don't really understand everything related to what it is they're doing there.
Were there any speeches of real significance, other than breast-beating boasts of what the leadership contenders were capable of (according to their very best opinions of self), given the opportunity to lead the party, confront the beast-in-office and begin the solemn task of leading this country into its best-yet performance? Were there any truly meaningful discussions around significant issues?
All of the leadership speeches were rife with indignation and anger over the nerve of those bloody Conservatives - to think they had a right to undo everything the hard-working, reliable, brilliant Liberals had undertaken in the past to lead the country into greater opportunities at home and abroad. Thing is, if the Liberals had done more than blow hot air they wouldn't have been tossed out to begin with.
And it was under the Liberal banner that Jean Chretien and Paul Martin between them began their evisceration of Canada's beloved universal medicare system, beggaring the provinces which in their turn took it out on welfare recipients and bogged down on assisted housing. It was also under the Liberal banner that government began the process of moving outside the public service through its brilliant contracting-out schemes.
It was that kind of brilliant short-term strategy whereby government saved money it would formerly pay out for costly benefits like unemployment insurance (oops..."employment insurance" - which, by the way, the Liberal government also altered in a manner inimical to the unemployed, making benefits leaner and qualifications tougher) and pension plans. After all those public service positions were declared redundant, brushed off the books, the work contracted out - what happened? Why the public service began to regrow itself!
Government's action helped business and corporations see their way clear to becoming leaner and meaner. To strengthen the bottom line and ensure that stakeholders remained happy with more immediate profits, a lot of people lost jobs, but hey, the government was doing it so why not private industry? Of course things began to suffer; people primarily, having to kind of produce more for the same salary. High stress leading to less productivity. Hey, a really vicious cycle.
The Liberal government talked big about their concerns for Canada's international role as a moral interlocutor, and under Jean Chretien gave aid and moral support to those bastiens of humanistic democracy, the Arab and Muslim states whose yearly jollies at the United Nations were celebrated through odiously-worded censures against the State of Israel. Despite declarations of tepid-worded support, mostly stating that "Israel has a right to exist". Thank you very much.
And our obligations to the world at large and ourselves in particular when it came to the environment were certainly not overlooked. Jean Chretien and his team talked a good line, promising to clean up faulty environmental practises, and then did nothing at all, brought no working solution or workable schedule forward nor did they begin to implement anything remotely leading to change in favour of cleansing and protection the environment.
Yet here were all the candidates blasting the newly-minted Conservative minority government. Because, after all, they're conservatives and that scary Stephen Harper is up there doing all those dreadful things. Wasn't it in the Mulroney government that Joe Clark as our foreign minister unleashed a campaign of human-rights championship, railing against the apartheid government of South Africa? That was pretty effective.
Wasn't it a Conservative government under the much-despised Brian Mulroney that lobbied the United States incessantly to help clean up our collective acts on the environment to try to solve the problem of acid rain? Yes, the Liberals have it all; they're morally untouchable, unlike the irresponsible, hard-hearted conservatives who would never have dared do the damage to Canada's social programmes that we suffered under Jean Chretien.
So here was Bob Rae, a failed New Democratic Party provincial leader whose inept governance of the province of Ontario led even the stalwarts of union leadership to abandon and excoriate the NDP because of unprecedented labour-bashing and a total failure of government to act responsibly at a time of great need. Here he is, the messiah of the Liberal party, ready to lead it out of its self-generated wilderness.
He's the anointed of the Chretien Liberals. Shudder. He was out, too bad, so sad, on the third ballot. What about Michael Ignatieff, who just couldn't stop sticking his blueblood tongue up his nose? Well, when he's in "academic mode" this brilliant thinker weaves one way, but when he's in "leadership mode" he sways the other. Mind, he doesn't just assemble his thoughts and reach conclusions in his skull, but he has a propensity to blurt them out. And then he's puzzled because the great unwashed doesn't appear to understand the workings of a great mind, denies; implausibly, but with grand sweeping style.
Is it a messiah-complex or just plain old arrogance that a former journalist - respected academic, recent politician who has lived most of his privileged life outside the country he now seeks to represent on the world stage - has placed himself front and centre as an aspirant for the Liberal party leadership? No experience as a politician. How deep can his commitment to the country be, after all? How well does he accord with the larger needs of the country and its population, given his long absence?
Ah, Stephane Dion. Who couldn't admire and like this unaffected, intelligent, honest and sincere man? One believes he tries. One cannot mistrust his motives. His instincts are all the right ones. He is an honourable man, no doubt about it. And, obviously, much misunderstood, quite understated. A real come-from-behind original. Surprise, surprise; everyone's second choice!
Um, the thing of it is, he's a Chretien liberal, sad to say. And if the party is to be truly re-born the two opposing camps have to become integrated into one for any real future as a governing party once again. Mr. Dion would have to divest himself of most of the filaments surrounding him as a one-time Chretien cabinet minister, even though he was a loyal Chretienite.
And where will Mr. Dion's votes come from if and when he must face Stephen Harper in an election? Ontario? Quebec, where he is held in medium-to-low esteem, thanks to his unswerving devotion to federalism and his hand in writing a piece of legislation that Quebecois scorn? Western Canada perhaps? The Maritimes? Looks pretty bleak.
Were there any speeches of real significance, other than breast-beating boasts of what the leadership contenders were capable of (according to their very best opinions of self), given the opportunity to lead the party, confront the beast-in-office and begin the solemn task of leading this country into its best-yet performance? Were there any truly meaningful discussions around significant issues?
All of the leadership speeches were rife with indignation and anger over the nerve of those bloody Conservatives - to think they had a right to undo everything the hard-working, reliable, brilliant Liberals had undertaken in the past to lead the country into greater opportunities at home and abroad. Thing is, if the Liberals had done more than blow hot air they wouldn't have been tossed out to begin with.
And it was under the Liberal banner that Jean Chretien and Paul Martin between them began their evisceration of Canada's beloved universal medicare system, beggaring the provinces which in their turn took it out on welfare recipients and bogged down on assisted housing. It was also under the Liberal banner that government began the process of moving outside the public service through its brilliant contracting-out schemes.
It was that kind of brilliant short-term strategy whereby government saved money it would formerly pay out for costly benefits like unemployment insurance (oops..."employment insurance" - which, by the way, the Liberal government also altered in a manner inimical to the unemployed, making benefits leaner and qualifications tougher) and pension plans. After all those public service positions were declared redundant, brushed off the books, the work contracted out - what happened? Why the public service began to regrow itself!
Government's action helped business and corporations see their way clear to becoming leaner and meaner. To strengthen the bottom line and ensure that stakeholders remained happy with more immediate profits, a lot of people lost jobs, but hey, the government was doing it so why not private industry? Of course things began to suffer; people primarily, having to kind of produce more for the same salary. High stress leading to less productivity. Hey, a really vicious cycle.
The Liberal government talked big about their concerns for Canada's international role as a moral interlocutor, and under Jean Chretien gave aid and moral support to those bastiens of humanistic democracy, the Arab and Muslim states whose yearly jollies at the United Nations were celebrated through odiously-worded censures against the State of Israel. Despite declarations of tepid-worded support, mostly stating that "Israel has a right to exist". Thank you very much.
And our obligations to the world at large and ourselves in particular when it came to the environment were certainly not overlooked. Jean Chretien and his team talked a good line, promising to clean up faulty environmental practises, and then did nothing at all, brought no working solution or workable schedule forward nor did they begin to implement anything remotely leading to change in favour of cleansing and protection the environment.
Yet here were all the candidates blasting the newly-minted Conservative minority government. Because, after all, they're conservatives and that scary Stephen Harper is up there doing all those dreadful things. Wasn't it in the Mulroney government that Joe Clark as our foreign minister unleashed a campaign of human-rights championship, railing against the apartheid government of South Africa? That was pretty effective.
Wasn't it a Conservative government under the much-despised Brian Mulroney that lobbied the United States incessantly to help clean up our collective acts on the environment to try to solve the problem of acid rain? Yes, the Liberals have it all; they're morally untouchable, unlike the irresponsible, hard-hearted conservatives who would never have dared do the damage to Canada's social programmes that we suffered under Jean Chretien.
So here was Bob Rae, a failed New Democratic Party provincial leader whose inept governance of the province of Ontario led even the stalwarts of union leadership to abandon and excoriate the NDP because of unprecedented labour-bashing and a total failure of government to act responsibly at a time of great need. Here he is, the messiah of the Liberal party, ready to lead it out of its self-generated wilderness.
He's the anointed of the Chretien Liberals. Shudder. He was out, too bad, so sad, on the third ballot. What about Michael Ignatieff, who just couldn't stop sticking his blueblood tongue up his nose? Well, when he's in "academic mode" this brilliant thinker weaves one way, but when he's in "leadership mode" he sways the other. Mind, he doesn't just assemble his thoughts and reach conclusions in his skull, but he has a propensity to blurt them out. And then he's puzzled because the great unwashed doesn't appear to understand the workings of a great mind, denies; implausibly, but with grand sweeping style.
Is it a messiah-complex or just plain old arrogance that a former journalist - respected academic, recent politician who has lived most of his privileged life outside the country he now seeks to represent on the world stage - has placed himself front and centre as an aspirant for the Liberal party leadership? No experience as a politician. How deep can his commitment to the country be, after all? How well does he accord with the larger needs of the country and its population, given his long absence?
Ah, Stephane Dion. Who couldn't admire and like this unaffected, intelligent, honest and sincere man? One believes he tries. One cannot mistrust his motives. His instincts are all the right ones. He is an honourable man, no doubt about it. And, obviously, much misunderstood, quite understated. A real come-from-behind original. Surprise, surprise; everyone's second choice!
Um, the thing of it is, he's a Chretien liberal, sad to say. And if the party is to be truly re-born the two opposing camps have to become integrated into one for any real future as a governing party once again. Mr. Dion would have to divest himself of most of the filaments surrounding him as a one-time Chretien cabinet minister, even though he was a loyal Chretienite.
And where will Mr. Dion's votes come from if and when he must face Stephen Harper in an election? Ontario? Quebec, where he is held in medium-to-low esteem, thanks to his unswerving devotion to federalism and his hand in writing a piece of legislation that Quebecois scorn? Western Canada perhaps? The Maritimes? Looks pretty bleak.
posted by Pieface | 1:23 PM
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