Sheila Copps should be credited for having tried hard.
The speech she delivered last Thursday night at the gathering of 600 hundred
Liberals at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto was powerful. She delivered a
strong message for unity.
However, she was not prepared to go further. During the
speech it was clear that she is still in pain for what happened to her
during the Paul Martin era. "I cried," she said; and, in fact, she almost
cried, again, during the speech. It was a speech about peace, but not about
forgiveness and forgetting.
The so-called "King Edward Accord," organized by former
Liberal MP Dennis Mills and Liberal MP Paul Zed (Saint John, N.B.) and named
for its venue, was undoubtedly a success, but it was an awkward one.
Although there was no "accord" and the peace process has
not even started, it was very useful because it provided a kind of political
X-ray of the Liberals to assess the status of their party. And the X-rays
confirm a deep, very deep, divide.
The results of the event are very useful for all
candidates to the leadership race.
They were all there, with the exception of John Godfrey
(Don Valley West, Ont.) and Belinda Stronach (Newmarket-Aurora, Ont.).
They now know that the party is deeply divided and that
the major task for them is not winning the race, but rebuilding the party.
In her speech, Copps never mentioned Martin, and not a
bad word was said about Tony Valeri, former government House leader and the
Liberal MP who defeated her during a heated nomination battle of epic
proportions in Hamilton in February 2004.
The "pain" however, was present during the speech and the
healing definitely requires more time.
Most of the estimated 600 people present at the event
were "neutral" or close to former prime minister Jean Chrétien. I might have
missed someone, but the only "Martinites" there were John Duffy and Liberal
MP Joe Fontana. Liberal MP Joe Volpe, former Ontario minister and former
minister of immigration, was present.
However, the relationship between Mr. Volpe and the
so-called Martin "board" was like the one between a wife and husband living
under the same roof but in separate rooms. They were just waiting for the
children to grow up to formalize the divorce. According to sources, Mr.
Volpe said his plans on immigration policy were repeatedly sabotaged by the
PMO. But this is a topic for the future.
At the King Edward Accord, meanwhile, people were polite
with one another, but the conversations they were having in the hallways
were about the weather, their families and the March break.
Of course, every now and then they approached closer
friends, quipping jokes like, "I'll make sure that I always have someone to
cover my back." I mentioned to one guest that he was gaining weight. "It's
not fat," he said, "it's my bullet proof vest."
The moments when guests showed a kind of genuine warmth
was when former prime minister John Turner and the wife of his successor,
Aline Chrétien, took the stage. They were received with politeness and loud
applause. They, however, stuck to the theme of the evening: honouring Sheila
Copps.
The feelings Sheila Copps expressed last week represents,
in my view, the feelings of all Liberals at this time in their history. I'm
not saying that she is right or wrong. I'm just saying there is still deep
pain on both sides and, even though they're convinced that they must
overcome that in order to go back to power, they are not prepared to let it
go. Feelings are still too deep.
The King Edward Accord did not provide any prognosis, but
Liberals now have a professional diagnosis confirming their disease.
Credit must be given to Dennis Mills and Paul Zed (the
latter is considering entering the leadership race) for organizing an event
that provides a clear picture of the situation within the Liberal Party. I'm
sure that it was tougher for Mr. Mills to organize last week's event than it
to organize Toronto's SARS concert. It's also agreed that it is easier these
days to put 600,000 Rolling Stones fans in the same venue than it is to put
600 hundred Liberals together in the same room. Well done.
