On Liberal Renewal and Exaggeration

Pursuing the eternal belief that for every ailment, there's a national strategy.

Liberal party members have gathered in the national capital this weekend to determine just what direction they want to take for the next four years, although if you listen to the pundits, that "direction" looks like "treading water" or worse, a move "backward." The Postmedia chain's Michael Den Tandt takes a gander at the two leading candidates to become Liberal party president, former cabinet minister Sheila Copps and Ontario organizer Mike Crawley, and determines they both have boatloads of baggage, if not a lot else. Copps, of course, was one of the Liberal "Brat Pack" of the 1980s before challenging Jean Chretien for the leadership in 1990, then becoming one of his fiercest Parliamentary lieutenants. "Copps' candidacy raises other issues - most notably the old Chrétien-Martin rivalry, which despite the numerous stakes pounded through its withered heart, refuses to die," notes Den Tandt. Crawley, on the other hand, has his own drawback: namely, being the CEO of the company that carried out Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's plan to "erect 50-storey industrial wind turbines across the province," an "idea [that] resulted in McGuinty's being relieved of his majority, and four rural cabinet ministers, in the recent election." Popular among rural Ontarians he might not be, but we think Den Tandt might be overstating the awareness the general voting public has of party executives. Better a backroom organizer with some baggage but vision then an outsized personality - just look at how effectively John Walsh has guided the Conservatives, in large part due to keeping a low profile.

Over in The Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson advises both Crawley and Copps to beware of Alexandra Mendes, a former Montreal MP who's positioned herself as the "dark horse" candidate leading up to Saturday's vote. Mendes, who was born in Portugal, raised in Quebec, and is fluently bilingual might be better suited to rebuilding the party's fortunes in Quebec. Plus, as she points out on her site, she has a "clear understanding that the Leader is the face, voice and final authority of the Party, not the president." (Emphasis hers.) Good enough for us. As for refreshing the party's brand, Ibbitson points to three policy proposals put forward that could gain some traction amongst that great untapped source of voters – the under-30 crowd. "One that has raised eyebrows the most is a proposal from the Young Liberals to abolish the monarchy and create a made-in-Canada head of state," writes Ibbitson, along with proposals to endorse legalization of marijuana and renew calls for high-speed rail in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta. The key to all three of these proposals, as we see it, is that they're all so simple and easily communicable. Contrasted to high-minded "national strategies" that are the typical election bait emanating from the Liberals, these are the kinds of proposals that get non-voters talking. What non-voting 20-something wouldn't want to be able to smoke a joint outside Toronto's Union Station, hop on a train, and be in downtown Montreal an hour or two later? ("High"-speed rail, indeed.) Suffice it to say that same demographic isn't sitting around in Queen West cafes talking about the Wheat Board or tax credits.

As for those beleaguered "national strategies," the National Post's Andrew Coyne (it feels so right being able to say that again) reminds us that they're still very much in vogue among the card-carriers. Says Coyne:

Among the resolutions up for debate are proposals for: a national food strategy, a national housing strategy, a national infrastructure strategy, a national home care plan, a national mental health plan, a Supplemental Canada Pension Plan, a "comprehensive post-secondary education funding plan" and a "comprehensive integrated transportation system," including high-speed rail lines from Quebec City to Windsor and Edmonton to Calgary. Oh, and a national child care program, but you knew that.

Well, you know where we stand on the high-speed rail plan, but it seems like the party would need a national strategy for national strategies just to keep them all in line. Anyhow, to Coyne, they all smack of being "exactly the same big-spending, government-driven, Ottawa-knows-best programs the party has campaigned on in the past, including its recent string of glorious defeats." Merits of those strategies aside, they've led to more yawns from voters and snide remarks from the media than new blood for the party. Throwing in Sheila Copps to that mix might give Liberals a comforting sense of nostalgia for the halcyon days, but as the past decade has proved, ensconcing themselves with their past successes only serves to isolate them further from a public that granted the Conservatives a majority and vaulted the NDP into official opposition.