Political Staples

I am one who likes to zig when everyone else is zagging. The jumping on the burning corpse of the Liberal Party is starting to bother for simple reason the consensus wisdom is often wrong. But if it is right in the case that all I can say is, ouch!

...Tobin quit early when he realized that he could not beat Martin for the leadership. Manley quit later because he too was a loser. McKenna choked on the 2004 election because he could not walk into the riding he wanted, Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, which was already occupied by Labour Minister Claudette Bradshaw. Oddly, when they explained their decisions, none of them mentioned the joys of family life.

It must be acknowledged that each of the three is burdened with some heavy baggage. Tobin, a superb politician, lost his power base in Newfoundland and Labrador. Thanks to Meech Lake, McKenna is on the wrong side of Quebec politics and, like Tobin, is inadequate in French. Manley is afflicted with curiously flawed political judgment, such as when he was finance minister but thought it acceptable to call one of the chartered banks about help for his hometown hockey team, the Ottawa Senators.

Still, the three were deemed to be obvious successors to Martin. But that too may tell you something about the state of the Liberal party.

...Perhaps more serious in the long term is that the party does not seem to know what it is or where it is going. After 13 years of Chrétien and two of Martin, it is hard to define Liberalism.

Chrétien had never been particularly interested in policy, but Martin was deeply committed. That's supposedly why Martin went into politics. Yet his list of priorities was endless and shapeless and, as someone said, if you have 200 priorities you have none.

The signal success of the years since the Liberals

...Unless Stephen Harper stumbles disastrously, the Conservatives can expect to be in office for perhaps two or three elections. That would mean that whoever succeeds Martin will be in Opposition for six or 10 years.