The Conservatives held their first leadership debate this week. And, if it showcased the future of the party, that future will be dark, indeed. Susan Delacourt writes:
Jean Charest, the former premier of Quebec, was the odd man out in this week’s dust-up between Conservative leadership candidates at the Ottawa convention centre.
The crucial question for Charest, if not Conservatives themselves, is whether the same is true about the entire federal party. If the crowd at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference is representative of the Conservative party as a whole, Charest and his brand of politics are an outlier force.
Or, to put it more frankly, it may be now that the old, progressive conservatism is the real fringe movement in the Conservative Party of Canada.
The crowd's reaction to Charest was deeply troubling:
It was the chorus of boos greeting Charest that showed just how much he was in unfriendly territory on Thursday night. Standing in a convention centre that was near ground zero of the Ottawa occupation this winter, Charest had the nerve to call the [truckers']protest illegal.
That’s not what the crowd, or the other candidates, wanted to hear. They howled outrage. Not only is Charest the only non-Ontario contender in this race, he is also the only would-be leader who isn’t looking to align himself with the angry mob that put the capital city and crucial border points under siege in February.
He’s also not declaring war on the media or the CBC, conflicted on abortion rights or nostalgic for the days of Stephen Harper. All any candidate needed to do to get the crowd cheering on Thursday was to whip up rage against “legacy media,” elites and anything else deemed “liberal.” Even the moderators got in on the act, positing that Conservatives keep losing elections because the media gangs up on social conservatives.
No, Charest pointed out at one early stage of the debate — Conservatives are still paying a high political price for their “barbaric cultural practices” tip line during the 2015 election, he said. A modern Conservative party has to be welcoming to new Canadians and national in outlook. His own supporters cheered. Many in the room did not.
This isn’t just a question of whether Charest will win or not when the votes are all counted in September. It goes to the heart of what the Conservative party is all about, after losing three elections and the discipline of power they had during the Harper years.
Charest and his team will no doubt be reflecting on that scene at the conference, and whether it’s wise or even possible to lead a party populated by partisans more interested in knocking things down than building anything up. No one talked of climate change, Canada-U.S. relations or even Ukraine in any substantial way.
We've seen how this story plays out. South of the border, it led to four years of Donald Trump and the Supreme Court he built.
Apparently, there are lots of us who are crazy enough to want to repeat that story.
Image: The Toronto Star
10 comments:
The egotism and pomposity of the Conservatives is unbelievable. For years they sat at the border whining for the attention of the USA.”Please look at us here north of you. See what we can do”. If conservatives want to be like the Americans in every way, move there and let’s see how you get on. Anyong
The "legacy media" in Canada is overwhelmingly conservative and endorses the CPC at election time. When mentioning them whips up rage among Con party members you know that a steady diet of social media conspiracies has made Cons crazier than shithouse rats. Charest hasn't a chance. On the bright side, clips from the debates will make excellent fodder for Lib and NDP campaign ads.
Cap
They're Northern Republicans now, Anyong.
The devolution of the party of John Diefenbaker and Bob Stanfield is truly depressing, Cap.
"the discipline of power they had during the Harper years"
In hindsight that discipline disintegrated after Harper's 2011 majority. It was more like the 'discipline of attaining power'. Hence the Barbaric loss in 2015 as soon as a credible alternative emerged.
Harper misread his 2011 win, which was actually due to a repudiation of Iggy-the-idiot and a literally 'fatal embrace' of the dying le-bon-Jack by the inscrutable Quebecois.
Our antique fptp parliamentary farce is not as dangerous as the USA's Senate/Electoral College sanfu, but Lil'PP could be PM if the Libs choose someone like Freedland and our Quebec kin find another Layton or Lucian Bouchard to follow over the cliff.
An American joke that holds up pretty when when transposed to Canada:
ESL is a tough slough. ;-)
One silent K in Knew
Two Silent Ks in Knickknack
Three silent Ks in Conservative
Poilievre should be taken seriously, PoV -- precisely because he's a dangerous man.
The party increasingly feels like the kind of organization that appeals to people who like to wear hoods, PoV.
The CPC should just cut to the chase and make Pat King, currently in custody, their leader. That is who they are now.
mr perfect
Their support for the truckers' convoy makes it clear that Mr. King is the man they're looking for, perfect.
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