Not Their Party

If you want to know how far the Conservative Party has devolved, consider former prime minister Kim Campbell's comments on what's going on there now. Sarah Turnbull writes:

Amid discussions about the battle for the soul of the Conservative Party, former Prime Minister Kim Campbell says without leadership on policies such as climate change, the party’s identity will remain in question.

“I'm sorry, if you're not worried about climate change, and you're not worried about resurgent authoritarianism, and you're not a champion of the rights of women to make the contributions they need to make in society, I’m not interested,” she said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period airing Sunday.

“Canada has got to be part of the solution to climate change and the fact that there could be any party that drags its feet is just so depressing.”

Campbell is no friend of Pierre Poilievre:

The former leader also weighed in on Pierre Poilievre’s attacks on the Bank of Canada, and specifically comments that Governor Tiff Macklem should be fired for failing to manage soaring inflation.

Yeah, he should have predicted you know, the disruptions of the COVID supply chains and the war in Ukraine, right? Yeah. Get rid of the dude, he's not consulting his tarot cards. Grow up,” she said.

And on the independence of Canada’s central bank, she said “when people are appointed to hold independent positions you need to suck it up and respect that unless there is clear evidence that what they are doing is either incompetent or done in bad faith or dangerous.”

The party is obviously not Campbells's Party. It's not Joe Clark's Party. Or Brian Mulroney or Bob Stanfield's Party.

Indeed. CTV News

A Collection Of Angry Cranks

Derek Sloan -- a Conservative leadership candidate, who comes from a riding close to us -- has badmouthed Dr. Theresa Tam. Bruce Arthur writes:

Sloan charged that Tam “parroted” World Health Organization advice, and that the WHO “parroted” China’s statements. The email involved stopping the UN Migration Compact, which is a non-binding agreement; defunding the WHO; stopping abortion; and revoking Canada’s commitment to the Paris Accords. You know, for Earth Day.

A lot of that is garden-variety anti-globalist conservatism, which is ironically at least partly an American import. But the smear against Tam was truly ugly stuff: tarring a Chinese Canadian as a double agent.

But Sloan is not the only Conservative spreading this ugly smear:

The alt-right chop shop at The Rebel, run by the disgraced Ezra Levant, had already pushed it. On April 16 Levant started a petition to fire Tam, and wrote, in part, “whose side is she on, Canada’s or China’s WHO?” Sloan wasn’t even original. If anything, he was late.

Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, field-tested a version in a CBC Interview on April 13, when he said, “You know, this is the same Dr. Tam who was telling us that we shouldn’t close our borders to countries with high levels of infection, and who in January was repeating talking points out of the (People’s Republic of China) about no evidence of human-to-human transmission.”

Andrew Scheer has refused to disavow this smear. Dr. Tam has, not surprisingly, been graceful under pressure. She responded:

“My singular focus is to work with all of my colleagues to get this epidemic wave under control. I don’t let noise detract me from doing that, and that’s how I work.

“And I think as I took on this job, I know that the population is my patient, and this is how I look at the Canadian population … I only represent a very small aspect of the public health response in Canada, and I’m really proud that I’m part of it.”

The Conservative Party used to be an honourable party. Now it's a collection of ugly cranks.

Image: Meme Generator