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Monday Sept.
21
2009 BACK NEXT
Mr.
Ignatieff, please, say something Liberal
By
Angelo
Persichilli
THE HILL
TIMES
The federal Liberal Party
of Canada seems more and more like the fireman who asks for a medal
after putting out a fire that he started himself.
From its
decision to elect Stéphane Dion, to its decision to withdraw support
for the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there
is a growing list of wrong decisions that "had to be made." It's
like the Liberal Party, over the last few years, has been making
today's decisions only to correct yesterday's mistakes.
Of
course, it all started with the feud between Paul Martin and Jean
Chrétien. The feud is over, but, like this recession, its
consequences will remain for a long time.
In 2005, the
Liberals didn't feel comfortable electing a "former Canadian" or a
former NDPier so they elected a former academic who never become a
politician.
Of course, it was the wrong choice, and they
knew it, but they felt that "we had to do that," considering their
alternatives.
We know what happened after; they had to force
him out unceremoniously, also undermining the democratic process to
elect a leader. Of course, they admit, it was wrong, but they "had
to do that" considering the further damage Dion could have done to
the party.
So they elected in a hurry Michael Ignatieff,
someone who they could have democratically elected two years
earlier, and tried to sell him to Canadians as the new saviour of
the country. He attacks Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the
government and criticizes his budget and, in the end, he decided to
support it.
Of course, it wouldn't have been better to vote
against it and send Canadians, again, back to the polls. But they
had an alternative, which was to take ownership of the budget, and
tell Canadians that it was a Liberal budget that a Conservative
government was forced to accept.
Of course, they could have
said they would have done something different, for example, say, 'At
this time this budget is better than another useless and dangerous
election right in the middle of a tough recession.'
Instead,
they attacked a budget that was accepted and coordinated
internationally and, in the process, losing their credibility. They
threw mud at an economic document that they had to vote for more
than 50 times.
It was a painful time for all Liberals and,
at the end of the spring session, the party was becoming
economically fit, but ideologically broke. They all felt
uncomfortable and they realized that it was time to pull the plug;
again, “we had to do that.”
At this point, they made another
huge mistake.
With the reputation of the leader still to
build with Canadians and with the whole summer at their disposal to
do just that, they decided to hide the leader for more than a month,
while the Prime Minister was in the news because of international
events and the Conservative propaganda machine attacked Ignatieff's
reputation.
All of sudden, at the end of August, with the
economy finally on the mend and with Ignatieff's political
reputation in need of some serious attention, the Liberals decided
to pull the plug, risking being accused by Canadians of forcing an
election for partisan reasons, in the middle of an economic recovery
and with the political reputation of the leader in disarray. What
was the reason for this action? Of course, “we had to do
that!”
It is good for the Liberals that the NDP is in a much
worse situation. The NDP is giving them a hand.
Unfortunately, it looks like that the Liberals still aren't
in the mood to put some meat on the bones.
They keep
criticizing the government for economic policies that they've
supported, without telling Canadians their alternative.
The
first day in Question Period, you could see the Liberals lacked
focus and were shooting all over the map. They were still trying to
win an election by resorting to the old antics of the former Reform
Party and waiting for some mistakes from prime minister Harper. They
wait so desperately for mistakes that they tried to build a case
around the fact that Prime Minister Harper wants to win a majority
government. Imagine that.
I noticed Liberal MP Bob Rae
asking how Harper wants to defend Canadian medicare from the attack
of the forces of the right in the United States, or questioning the
length of the meeting between Harper and U.S. President Barack
Obama, or the stupidity of sending body bags to aboriginals.
Again, I believe the Liberals had to withdraw their support from the Conservative
government to correct past mistakes but, paraphrasing an Italian politician, Mr.
Ignatieff, please, say something
Liberal.
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