There are many lessons to be taken from the truckers' convoy. For Tom Walkom, the most important lesson is that the marriage of convenience between the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservative Party is over:
Ultimately, the experiment has failed. The saga of Erin O’Toole has demonstrated the near impossibility of uniting the right behind one party. Conservatives who want to challenge Liberal hegemony will have to find another vehicle.
In theory, O’Toole did all the right things. He won the leadership of his party by presenting himself as a true-blue conservative.
Once that was in the bag, he moved quickly to the left in order to appeal to the electorate at large. He endorsed a carbon tax, and had his caucus withdraw its support for conversion therapy. He made a direct pitch to unionized workers. He stopped playing footsie with the Christian right.
In short, he followed the classic formula for Conservative success: Go right to get your party on side; veer left to appeal to the country as a whole.
But it didn't work:
It didn’t work because his caucus eventually refused to play along. Conservatives — and presumably the voters they represent — were sick of hiding their true beliefs just to score easy political points in official Ottawa.
The result was total confusion. O’Toole would articulate one position, while one or more of his caucus mates articulated another.
The contradictions grew particularly intense during last weekend’s trucker protest in Ottawa. Some Conservative MPs supported the protesters. Others, echoing the feelings of many non-Conservative Canadians, were less enthusiastic.
Under Stephen Harper, things were different. But when he left
the feuds didn’t end. They grew. Social conservatives were increasingly at odds with their secular counterparts. Riding associations fractured along ideological lines.
In part, the splits reflected the party’s failure to forge a single coherent vision. There are still two parties warring within the bosom of the unified Conservative movement.
As O’Toole put it this week, one of those parties is modern and moderate. The other is reactionary and extreme.
It's clear the extremists are in charge. And it looks like a divorce is in the offing. Bring it on.
Image: The Hill Times
