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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.

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