It’s dead
wrong to describe Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Joe Comuzzi’s expulsion
from the National Liberal Caucus as a “divorce” because divorce is a
separation between two entities and there’s only one real entity here:
Comuzzi.
At the
present time, the Liberal Party of Canada seems to be a concept, on
paper.
In
reality, it’s only a group of people, who call themselves “Liberals” and
who gather every day in the House at 2 p.m.
for
Question Period, just as soccer fans gather in a stadium for a game. And
after cheering, yelling and insulting adversaries, they go back home to
carry on their own business.
Liberal
Party Leader Stéphane Dion is a very intelligent and honest man. He is
genuinely interested in bringing all Liberals together, but in order to
do that you need a strong leader and Dion is weak.
A clear
sign of his weakness was revealed last week when he expelled Comuzzi
from the caucus because Comuzzi said he will support the government’s
budget. “I am a politician, but also a lawyer,” Mr. Comuzzi told
The Hill
Times
in an
interview. “Mr. Dion has made a decision based not on what I have done,
but because of what I’ve said. Until now, I have done nothing.” But
Comuzzi, 74, first elected in 1988 and a former Paul Martin Cabinet
minister, who resigned from Cabinet because he couldn’t support the
same-sex marriage vote, went further: “The decision to expel an MP,
because he is invoking his right to vote according to his conscience,
has been made by the same leader who once said he was willing to
consider the possibility of bringing back into the party those members
expelled because of the sponsorship scandal.” Of course he backed out
when the party forced him to do so.
Comuzzi
admits that “today is not a happy day for me. I’ve worked for years for
the Liberal Party and I did not hope to end my relationship this way.”
But he adds that “my life has never been easy and I’ll go through this
one as well.” For the time being, he says he will “keep serving my
constituents as an Independent MP. For me, it’s business as usual.” He
has no plans for the future, although Comuzzi is expected not to run
again.
But Dion’s
decision to expel Comuzzi was nothing other than a pathetic action to
hide the lack of leadership at the top of the Liberal Party. Comuzzi
said he plans to support the budget because it contains money for a
cervical cancer research centre in his riding.
As I said,
I have a lot of respect for Mr.
Dion, as I
had respect for former prime minister John Turner.
Unfortunately, even if the premises of their victory at the leadership
race were different, their fate has a lot in common.
Turner won
because Liberals believed that he was the man to keep them in power.
When Turner failed, he was dropped like a stone. He worked hard against
the Brian Mulroney government, but failed in his efforts to get back
into 24 Sussex Dr.
His
failure was not necessarily the result of the “bomb-the-bridge” campaign
of the Conservatives, but a mischievous, subtle and constant undermining
from people within his party who performed, I must admit, “the Italian
job” through the “French connection.” In fact, when hopes for a victory
in the polls became real, Turner was tripped from inside and his window
of opportunity, no matter how disorganized, disappeared.
I agree
with some Liberal strategists who say that Dion, even with his
“Don-
Quixotesque”
charisma,
will have his window of opportunity during the next election.
Somebody
in the Conservative Party will provide that opportunity. However, just
like Turner, he will see the same window shut from inside because the
Liberal Party has, again, developed the Turner syndrome.
While the
Liberals in 1984 made a choice between two, considered, good candidates,
last year in Montreal they voted against those perceived front-runners.
They never believed for a moment that Dion had what it takes to bring
the Liberals back into the corridors of power, but nonetheless voted for
him to get rid of the others.
What Dion
has done, with his strong desire to bring the Liberals back together, is
put the party back into the hands of those the rank-and-files voted out.
So it’s a
party unable to capitalize on the good things accomplished in the past,
and trapped by the bad things that have characterized it. It is a party
whose present state is what we see daily in Question Period, and a party
whose future is based on the hope that the Conservatives will make a
mistake.
In the
middle of all this confusion is the only bold action and at least
premature expulsion of Comuzzi who is guilty of voting in favour of a
non-Liberal budget.
With this
decision they have not only expelled Comuzzi, but also all the
provincial Liberals of Quebec and Ontario. They have expelled Ontario
Premier Dalton McGuinty, Jean Charest and all their ministers who have
said that the Conservative budget is not bad.
In
reality, I believe that the federal Liberals have expelled themselves
from their own party by putting all party members in a state of
political limbo by waiting for a future when there will be an “adult
supervision” to all their activities.
