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Monday Oct. 5
2009 BACK NEXT
Ignatieff's political
euthanasia
By
Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
Watching the Liberals vote
non-confidence in the government last week was like watching death
rowers waiting to be hanged while advertising ropes. It was one of
the most inconsistent, unwise, unpolitical moves I have ever seen in
a Parliament.
With an economy still convalescent, polls
consistently showing the Liberals on the slippery side of the
equation, internal party divisions resurfacing in a very concerning
way and with huge troubles in Quebec which is, the province that was
supposed to be the base for their resurrection, the Liberals
presented a motion asking the government to step down and go to the
polls. The only explanation for this incoherent action might be
something called "political euthanasia" for Liberal Leader Michael
Ignatieff.
If this is not the case, the next question
is why? I asked several Liberals this question last week and they
wore their dissatisfaction on their sleeves.
But the answer was, "we had to do it, it was
matter of credibility." The sad part of this answer is that they're
right. Doing something other than that would have killed Ignatieff's
credibility. But, then again, if a party has to commit political
suicide to defend its credibility, it means there's not much of it
left in the party.
I see two major problems afflicting the
Liberals. First is their evident desire to get back into government
too soon and at all costs. Second, the divisions within their ranks.
When ambitions are not met with substance,
ridicule steps in. Shortcuts like Stéphane Dion's coalition last
year or Ignatieff's kamikaze vote like last week's will take the
Liberals nowhere. Canadians are tired of experiments and acts of
faith for people who still have to show their leadership. And this
takes me to the second reason why the Liberals are in this comatose
status: they are divided and they don't trust each other (and I'm
tempted to use the verb "hate").
And, to make things worse, it's not that
they don't trust each other because they are divided on some issues,
it's the other way around; they're divided because they don't trust
each other. There are no issues on the table.
The nature of this divide is based on
cultural differences, geographical interests and, most of all,
philosophical differences over the party as a big tent party. The
distrust has deep roots.
In the last half century, their strength
came from a strong political leadership from Quebec based on
cultural ties, a very efficient organization from Ontario, and some
ideological affinities with Atlantic Canada.
Things have changed.
In Quebec, they haven't been able to come up
with another strong leader like Trudeau and were only able to retain
power with Jean Chrétien because the Conservatives were divided.
Moreover, there is the Bloc Québécois
presence which has damaged the Liberals on two fronts: in Quebec,
for obvious reasons, and in the rest of the country because of the
balkanization of the vote. The Bloc Québécois presence has fostered
regionalism in Ottawa and has created problems primarily for the
Liberal Party.
The Liberal obsession with Quebec is
damaging the Liberal brand in the rest of the country. The first
cracks in the Liberal tent were evident when Ignatieff was forced to
accept the action of some Newfoundland MPs who voted against the
party line because of the actions of the Conservative government.
"If that's the criteria to vote in Ottawa," one Ontario Liberal MP
told me last week, "why does a Liberal MP from Ontario have to vote
against the same government? I believe our province has been fairly
treated by Harper."
If, on top of this structural damage, you
add the personal ambitions of some, the picture is complete and it's
not a pretty sight for the party. Liberals have to address the problem of their
damaged foundations first, then deal vigorously with ambitious
individuals who put their personal interests ahead of the party's
and the nation's and then re-examine their relationship with Quebec.
The days when you had to win Quebec in order to win the rest of the
country are gone. Now it's the other way around. You will get Quebec
if you get the rest of the country first. If the Liberals don't
smarten up, they will give Jack Layton's NDP has the opportunity to
become the real alternative to the Liberals in opposition and to the
Conservatives
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