- Hubris played an important role in the recent Canadian
election.
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- Paul Martin's assumption of power, after pushing aside
a popular and successful, though aging, Liberal leader, was disconcerting
to many. Then, despite Martin's reputation as an able technocrat in Jean
Chretien's cabinet, he quickly demonstrated he was not an apt public speaker.
It was not just the manner of his speech, but its content, often repeating
generalities heard many times about new tax revenue for cities. The contrast
with the clever and rough-hewn eloquence of Chretien could not have been
more striking. Martin was promoted heavily in the press as a leader of
considerable stature, but the quiet judgment of many listening to him was
somewhat at odds with this puffed-up praise.
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- Unavoidably, too, there was a certain uneasiness about
someone's assuming power without an election, although this is a common
enough event in parliamentary government. The uneasiness was exacerbated
by all the publicity about Martin's expecting an easy sweep of the next
election.
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- When Canada's Auditor General broke what would come to
be called the sponsorship scandal, she displayed poor judgment, using highly
colored language and playing directly to reporters keen for a juicy story
rather than just rigorously reporting facts. The press's incessant reportage
disturbed voters far more than warranted. Many eventually came to recognize
that the flap was out of proportion to the facts of what happened, but
not all. The large exception, amongst those who had voted Liberal before,
was Quebec whose people took the affair as an embarrassing insult. Quebec
is a grande dame with a somewhat unsavory past, with many tales of questionable
deals by questionable politicians lingering like hints of rare old perfume,
and this reputation was something modern Quebeckers thought they had put
behind them.
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- At first, Martin kept something of the dithering style
he displayed after assuming power when he often spoke of putting choices
on the table, words which seemed oblivious to the legitimate and expected
function of a leader. When he decided to act forcefully, he did so by dismissing
some old-line Liberals from their posts, exacerbating bad relations with
the Chretien wing of the party, not a good thing to do when anticipating
an election, although in at least one case the action seemed well deserved.
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- Martin's approach to a principled stand in the scandal
was to play tough guy with no tolerance for such activities, even though
everyone was perfectly aware they occurred while he held a high cabinet
post and was likely aware of them. Of course, he was not the leader then
and perhaps could do little to change policies with which he disagreed,
assuming he did disagree, other than tender his resignation, not something
ambitious men like doing.
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- The principled stand he should have taken was that the
activities, although mistaken, reflected his party's fierce determination
and commitment to prevent the separation of Quebec, which is pretty much
exactly the case. Would any sensible Canadian focus on that relatively
small amount of money misspent when the object was saving the great thing
called Canada? There were opportunities here for fierce eloquence completely
missed by Martin, opportunities that would not have been missed by Chretien.
One unavoidably had a sense of a man being led by events rather than leading.
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- So, even before the election was called, there was a
perception of Martin as, at one and the same time, a somewhat arrogant
man and one maybe not up to dealing well with a political crisis. Then
came Dalton McGuinty's budget in Ontario.
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- Dalton McGuinty's budget shook the public's confidence
in all Liberals, as it should have, even though McGuinty is not a national
politician. Here was the new leader of Canada's biggest province not just
gently drifting away from his campaign platform, something many politicians
do, but, shortly after taking office, breaking a forceful promise, a promise
given in writing and staged with considerable public ceremony. Voters understand
that campaign platforms are somewhat-vague expressions of intentions and
beliefs, but such a show-case promise is not the same.
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- McGuinty's behavior went to the heart of democracy. If
politicians are free to make strong promises they immediately break, the
disturbing question arises, why hold elections at all? The meaning of a
ballot is nullified by actions like McGuinty's.
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- McGuinty's provincial election campaign reminded me of
the lamentable Richard Nixon running for re-election in 1972. All the polls
told McGuinty for months that Ontario voters were tired of the Conservative's
"Common Sense Revolution" with the damage it did to the province's
social fabric. Despite knowing this - just as Nixon clearly knew that Americans
were not prepared to vote for George McGovern, a worthy man whose views
were too far beyond the mainstream - McGuinty showed the same paranoia
about winning that drove Nixon to the destructive behaviour known as Watergate.
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- McGuinty had seemed a decent-sounding man before the
provincial election, offering valid criticism of Ontario's Conservatives,
but desperate to assure victory, he made frantic promises during the campaign.
Apart from the written one on taxes, he made several inadequately-researched
promises like the one about stopping development on the Oak Ridges Moraine,
something which only saw him embarrassingly backing down in the face of
legal action as soon as he took office.
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- No thoughtful person can believe McGuinty did not have
a good estimate of the Conservative's hidden deficit. Not long before election
day, the Fraser Institute, a conservative economic institution thousands
of miles away, forecast the deficit with some accuracy. If they understood
the facts, why didn't McGuinty? His almost daily public whining over the
deficit, after a short stagey interval to discover it, seemed toe-scrunchingly
insincere.
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- Martin went into a national election under very unhappy
circumstances, many Liberals saying he should have waited to call it. Then,
despite a good deal of talk about a "democratic deficit," whatever
that inelegant phrase meant, he appointed several candidates in key ridings.
I think the psychological shock of Martin's following that old and familiar
parliamentary-government practice, under the special circumstances of the
election, was underrated by Liberal strategists.
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- But in the last days of a very tough election, one in
which Martin consumed generous portions of crow, he suddenly altered course,
displaying the kind of grit and determination voters always admire. His
voice became strong, losing its dithering quality, and he gave voters,
confronted with the possibility of government by a party clearly influenced
by religious-right extremists, a new sense of commitment to social justice.
Martin showed admirable qualities in those last days, and he very much
earned his minority. One hopes the bruising election experience was the
making of a great Prime Minister.
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- Considering the high level voter discontent and confusion
going into the election, the New Conservatives performed remarkably weakly
in not making greater gains. The party's co-founder, Peter McKay, doing
his best to mimic Dalton McGuinty's whining, complained immediately about
negative advertising. But Liberal advertising was not particularly aggressive,
and it was the public voices of New Conservative members themselves that
gave its suggestions any force. Outbursts coming from members of the party
resembled those of Texas Republicans, a group that doesn't need advertising
to scare people - Good God, recall the insane excesses of the Clinton impeachment
or the virtual kidnapping of a poor Cuban boy from his father!
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- Stephen Harper talked constantly about restoring integrity
to government, but I couldn't help recalling a fast-food advertising slogan
from years ago, where's the beef? Harper's party was born in the very-public
breaking of a written promise by McKay.
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- Would Harper's concept of integrity include the man who
still holds an important post in his party, Stockwell Day? Day's career
has included many blundering and thoughtless remarks, but, early in his
career, he made one when in a position of trust that ended costing taxpayers
in his province a small fortune providing him with legal defence. Mr. Day
never had the integrity or good grace to take responsibility for those
costs.
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- While the national memory of former Prime Minister Mulroney's
shady practices is beginning to fade, Harper's using him as an advisor
suggested a considerable lack of judgment. Did Harper truly believe that
associating himself with Mulroney, the man whose reputation caused voters
virtually to destroy the old Progressive Conservative Party, made him seem
main-stream?
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- Did Harper's assertion that Martin had been soft on child
pornography reflect integrity? The comment would be shameful at any time,
but it came after courtroom revelations about a terrifyingly brutal crime
in Toronto. Harper tried to direct the public's disgust against a decent
man and father. Is that integrity? The statement was loathsome, making
any negative advertising the Liberals did seem positively innocuous.
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- There was in my mind another dimension to the pornography
name-calling, concerning Harper's early enthusiastic support for America's
invasion of Iraq. It is now known at least ten thousand innocent civilians
were killed and many times that number were wounded or crippled by American
bombs in a pointless war based entirely on lies. Many of the dead and maimed
were children, for Iraq, like many Arab countries, has a very youthful
population. I can't speak for others, but children torn apart by bombs
is about as pornographic an act as I can imagine. Again, going to Harper's
integrity, he tried during the campaign to weasel his way through the words
of strong support he so plainly had given earlier.
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- It is simply a fact that Alberta has a quality in its
politics unattractive to many other Canadians. Ralph Klein, multiple-term
Premier of Alberta, is chief exemplar. His showing up drunk one night at
a men's shelter and hurling coins and insults at those less fortunate cannot
be forgotten. This was not the act of a foolish young man, but a mature
one, supposedly having gained some wisdom through years of politics. The
act was fobbed off with pity-seeking stuff about a drinking problem, the
kind of self-serving confession so popular in America, particularly in
the South where redemption is almost a vocation, but the Romans laid down
a sound principle when they said in vino veritas.
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- It was the act of an extremely mean-spirited man, as
were Klein's words, years ago at a time of energy problems, about letting
Eastern bastards freeze in the dark. His recent insistence on prosecuting,
instead of laughing off, the act of a student who threw a cream pie in
his face - an act which countless politicians have managed to accept with
some grace - only confirms how little he has changed.
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- Klein's activities during the mad-cow trouble display
the same qualities. He criticised the Prime Minister for not doing more
in Washington, failing to give Ottawa any credit for substantial efforts
against a rather slithery and self-righteous trading partner who took the
flimsiest excuse - a single diseased cow - to halt a major and historic
trade. Instead, Klein insisted on tripping down to Washington himself.
He was poorly received by his ostensible friends, being granted meaningless
minutes with secondary figures, and he had no influence on U.S. policy
whatever, but his bellowing continued.
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- Eastern Canadians, in sympathy with Alberta's plight,
greatly increased their consumption of beef, despite high prices maintained
by retailers and despite the fears of the disease promoted by American
beef interests nicely profiting from high domestic prices induced by the
trade ban. Did Klein ever have the grace to acknowledge this in a meaningful
way? Not at all.
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- Well, Harper is not Klein, and reportedly Klein himself
is not all that taken with Harper, but Klein's angry-child approach to
politics does provide a context for anyone outside Alberta to judge a new
party based there. A Joe Clark, serving with distinction and honour as
a Progressive Conservative, rose above this, but Harper not only didn't,
he frequently seemed not even to try.
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- Another refrain of Harper's was western alienation and
the West's needing to have influence in Ottawa, parroting Klein's regular
blubbering about Alberta being left out. If Klein's behaviours are examples
of Western alienation, it is pretty clear that a great deal of the effort
to correct the balance must come from Alberta itself.
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- I think many Canadians are open to new ideas about improving
our democracy, although nonsense like "we want in," an actual
phrase used in Alberta, offers us nothing but attitude. Proportional representation
should be carefully examined, although those who have thought about it
know it offers no panacea, bringing perhaps as many new problems as those
it might solve. A promising idea for reform is a ballot which allows voters
to rank their choices. That way, voters are more likely to feel their ballots
count, for even getting your second choice is more satisfying than the
simple win-or-lose choice voters now have, and such a system of voting
takes better account of the sometimes subtle differences between parties
on important issues.
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- During the last portion of the campaign, at the very
time Martin displayed a fierce new determination, Harper began puffed-up
talk about a New Conservative majority government. This not only suggested
hubris, it caused many ready to chastise the Liberals with their votes
to re-consider the possibility of national government with the tone of
Klein's Alberta.
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- The frightening influence of views from Texas - views
perhaps best exemplified by Tom DeLay, former entrepreneur roach exterminator
(yes, that was his business) and Republican Congressional Whip - is seen
clearly in Harper's refrain about courts legislating instead of Parliament.
This was a favorite of Old Tom's on the Texas Top Ten for many years, but
it is about the same kind of nonsense as the words to songs like "Stand
by Your Man."
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- When a nation chooses to govern itself by creating a
Charter, or Bill, of Rights, it necessarily leaves the precise interpretation
of the words to the courts. Otherwise, the Charter would have to read like
a provincial highway code instead of a broad statement of human principles.
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- What Harper seemed to be saying was that he wants to
cut back on the Charter, so that Courts would have little latitude in interpreting
it - that is, he wants to move in the direction of a highway code specifying
things like parking so many meters from a fire hydrant. Cutting back the
Charter of Rights doesn't make a very high-sounding campaign slogan. Blaming
judges for overstepping their responsibility and legislating in place of
a "democratically elected" Parliament does, at least in some
circles.
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- Of course, another possible approach here is to follow
the pattern of some American states in having judges elected. One hopes
Harper's supporters recognize the corrupt, legally incompetent, and politically-correct
results this practice produces. America's highest court, the ultimate interpreter
of its Bill of Rights, remains appointed with very little chance of its
ever being altered since it requires an immense effort to alter the American
Constitution which was given the form of a law unlike any other law. The
tactic used by the good old boys in Texas is to constantly spew their poison
about the courts and get themselves elected to the offices that appoint
the judges. Judges of that kind virtually appointed Bush as President.
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- Are we to expect an increasing chorus of yahoo rhetoric
about the courts? I hope not because that is a very destructive practice,
and it goes against the grain of Canadian social values, which are easily
confirmed to be, on average, quite different to those of Americans.
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- Social values brings us back to the basic problem of
Harper's party simply being out of step. His is not a new conservative
party in the sense most Canadians are used to thinking of the old Conservative
party. His party is the former Alliance, a regional party swollen temporarily
in size by public discontents. The election gave Martin, despite early
doubts about him, a large minority. The same election gave us a large number
of, whatever else they may be, socially-progressive Bloc members in Quebec
and a healthy vote for the NDP. The total of these three parties holds
more than twice the seats of the New Conservatives - a very strong vote
for traditional, decent Canadian social values.
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- Comment
- From Victor Fletcher
- 7-3-4
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- To John Chuckman -
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- We ran our front page headline story for Toronto Street
News (including Beach Star) saying that "We refused to pay the Liberals
any bribes in order to get ads."
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- Our weekly tabloid Toronto Street News sold on the streets
of Toronto by the homeless, handicapped, and unemployed just celebrated
its fifth year of publishing and the monthly Beach Star is now in its 2nd
year of publishing.
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- We have been investigated for the 6th time by the authorities
which include the Ontario Securities Commission (for reporting on their
$550,000 salaries), CSIS ( government's secret police: Canadian Security
Intelligence Service), by welfare departments, Fifth Estate (government's
Canadian National Broadcasting Corporation) and by a drug smuggling squad.
All for no reason whatsoever except for the fact they have huge budgets
to get onto our case and try to justify their existence!!
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- We just had confirmed that the PM's steamship line now
owned by his 3 sons was caught smuggling drugs into the country via a ship
from Venezuela whose undercarriage had $12-14 million value drug attachment
bolted to its hull underwater.
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- Our Toronto Street News think-tank had ascertained this
possibility two years ago as we watched the virtually bankrupt ship line
linger and wonder what method was being used to maintain the reliable shipment
of drugs into Canada.
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- -- Victor Fletcher
- Toronto Street News / Beach Star
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