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IGNORANCE, ARROGANCE AND SOCIALISM
by Angelo Persichilli
(Versione italiana)
THE HILL TIMES
What do Martin Cauchon,
Frank McKenna, Michael Ignatieff, Joe Volpe, Maurizio Bevilacqua, John
Manley, Belinda Stronach, Scott Brison and Ken Dryden all have in common?
They’re all rumoured to have some kind of interest in becoming the next
leader of the federal Liberal Party of Canada.
Each one
deserves further elaboration for future “Backrooms” columns, but this week,
I want to add another name to the political roster: Bob Rae.
Yes, you’ve
got it: the former wiz kid of Canadian politics, the former NDP premier of
Ontario. His name has been circulating in Toronto in the last few days in,
well, the backrooms.
The Globe and Mail
did a big
splash on Rae in last weekend’s newspaper too suggesting he could be
Canada’s next Governor General. Now, talking about Rae as a future leader of
the Liberal Party might sound like a crazy idea provoked by some sort of
political sun stroke, but even if the rumours are feeble, the sources they
are coming from are very strong.
This means
that even if Rae hasn’t been, yet, directly involved in this process, there
are definitely people in high places who are interested in having him
involved.
So, is it
possible that Mr. Former Everything is going to be also a former NDPer?
Well, he comes from a
Liberal family and his brother, John Rae, has been one of the most trusted
and most effective and respected members of former prime minister Jean
Chrétien’s electoral machine. Furthermore, the Liberal Party has been
harbouring many “formers” from both the left and the right.
If Rae joins the
Liberal Party it wouldn’t be a divorce from the NDP, in fact, it would be
like a prodigal son coming home.
The
question is: is he ready for the encounter with this shelter, the Liberal
Party, an organization always prepared to open its doors to all the stranded
people searching for a roof? Let’s see.
For a long
time, he has said that “the choice is not between capitalism and socialism.
The question is what kind of capitalism we want to have,”(In
Search of the New Left,
by James Laxer).
Moreover,
doubts about his socialist ways have been expressed over the years by some
of his closest advisers, including at the time he was premier of Ontario.
One of them, David Reville, said: “We had the passion and the theory. But we
didn’t have a fucking idea how to make things work. And we still don’t,” (Rae
Days, by
Thomas Walkom).
And, once
in government, he never had an idyllic relationship with unions: “Hargrove
couldn’t understand why we just couldn’t keep pushing ahead on our fiscal
path. Others had great difficulty with the notion that a social democratic
party should bother about debts or deficits at all...it was simply accepted
on the left that to worry about these things was a monopoly of the right,”(From
Protest to Power,
by Bob Rae).
And the
frustration was reciprocal.
Rae
himself, in his book, wrote: “Darryl Bean, of the Public Service Alliance of
Canada, opined that he couldn’t see any difference between us and the worst
of the Conservatives.”
Meanwhile, it must be
mentioned that Bob Rae was filled with horror when the former icon of
Canadian unions, Bob White, suggested “bankruptcy for Ontario to get rid of
the deficit.” And the unions to Rae: “You are elected to fight for our
people, not to stick your nose up Mulroney’s ass.” (From
Protest to Power).
Now, going
back to the time when the young Bob Rae parted from the family Liberal
tradition to join the NDP, he said that his decision was obvious because he
had to choose between “Joe Clark, Pierre Trudeau, Ed Broadbent: choice
between ignorance, arrogance, and socialism,”
(From Protest to
Power).
So considering that
socialism is likely not an option (see James Laxer), and ignorance is
unacceptable for a Rhodes Scholar, if Rae does indeed decide to get back
into politics, he will be left with one choice: arrogance. |