O'Toole's Speech

Last night, Erin O'Toole delivered a speech to the Conservative convention. It was all about change. First, he started with the facts:

We have lost two elections in five-and-a-half years. In that time, we have had four leaders. We must present new ideas, not make the same arguments hoping that maybe this time more Canadians will come around to our position.

Then he stated the obvious:

We are never going to win over Canadians just by relying on Justin Trudeau to continue to disappoint. His scandals, as outrageous as they often are, will never be enough to defeat him.

Then he lambasted the Liberals:

The Liberal government has used the worst health and economic crisis in generations to help some well-connected friends get ahead. While hundreds of thousands of Canadians got left behind. But even that will not be enough to defeat him. The Conservative Party can defeat him. But only with the courage to grow. To move beyond a party that does well only in certain parts of Canada, while leaving other Canadians out.

But he didn't say what kinds of changes the party needs to make. He did said he would introduce a jobs recovery plan. But it was pretty thin gruel. There's a reason the party's numbers are flat. Canadians know that Mr. O'Toole is pretty thin gruel.

And they know that O'Toole leads a party that is fixated on turning back the clock. That policy will no longer sell.

Image: macleans.ca

Standing Firmly By The Wealthy

Ten anti-union resolutions were passed at the Conservative convention in Calgary. They are aimed at making Canada a "right to work" nation. It's wise, therefore, to examine what has happened in the nation which pioneered right to work legislation. Right to work is the brain child of the Republican Party -- the source of inspiration for Harper Conservatives.

On Friday, in The New York Times, Paul Krugman wrote that Republicans have declared war on the poor:

Republicans in leadership positions try to modulate their language a bit, but it’s a matter more of tone than substance. They’re still clearly passionate about making sure that the poor and unlucky get as little help as possible, that — as Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, put it — the safety net is becoming “a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency.” And Mr. Ryan’s budget proposals involve savage cuts in safety-net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.

All of this hostility to the poor has culminated in the truly astonishing refusal of many states to participate in the Medicaid expansion. Bear in mind that the federal government would pay for this expansion, and that the money thus spent would benefit hospitals and the local economy as well as the direct recipients. But a majority of Republican-controlled state governments are, it turns out, willing to pay a large economic and fiscal price in order to ensure that aid doesn’t reach the poor. 

Modern conservatives have come to view poverty as a moral failure -- a sin which must be punished. And market ideology provides the rationale for their insanity:

So what’s this all about? One reason, the sociologist Daniel Little suggested in a recent essay, is market ideology: If the market is always right, then people who end up poor must deserve to be poor. I’d add that some leading Republicans are, in their minds, acting out adolescent libertarian fantasies. “It’s as if we’re living in an Ayn Rand novel right now,” declared Paul Ryan in 2009. 

Mr. Harper said that the next election should not be about choosing among candidates for Canadian Idol. But, of course, everything he says is laced with unintended irony. It's obvious that the Conservative Party of Canada sees itself as a contestant on American Idol.

And, like their Republican mentors, they stand firmly by the wealthy.