Or, “How to Rebuild a Political Party, in as Few Words as Possible.”
As the rhetoric leading up to this weekend’s Liberal convention in Ottawa begins in earnest I must—I simply must—say my piece.
I am a card-carrying member of the Liberal Party of Canada. I joined… gee I don’t know, back when what’s his name with the squeaky voice beat out Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae for the party leadership. I joined because I was interested in having a say in who would replace Jean Chretien or Paul Martin or however you want to look at it. At any rate, I’ve stuck it out for exactly that reason: because I want to have a say in the party going forward but as the outlook turns grimmer every year I’m beginning to wonder if I can get my money back.
Since Chretien stepped aside amidst the damning Sponsorship Scandal (remember that?) the Liberals have been left reeling, and lurching from election to election. And that was a while ago. But it’s easy enough to point out the flaws, nevermind that they’re glaringly obvious.
In-fighting. The Liberals are brilliant at fighting amongst themselves while slowly imploding. The results of said infighting are immediately tangible, just look at how mismanaged Michael Ignatieff’s election campaign was last time around. He was a genuinely bright and progressive guy but he ended up losing in an historic fashion. Why? Well partly because the party is so fragmented and divided. Ignatieff himself was brought in through backroom channels and never had support of all the party brass.
Denial. Not only has infighting and witless bickering brought the once might Red Machine to its knees but the whole party has a serious case of denial. No, you can’t close your eyes and everything will go away. The party has been in collapse since mid-way through the last decade and has been doing next to nothing to change their tact. No sweeping policy reviews, no ambitious goals or strong stances on, well, pretty much anything. The party has been trying to govern from the centre while in opposition and, frankly, that doesn’t seem to be working very well.
Looking back. Finally, the Liberals are absolutely fixated on reliving the good old days. It’s easy enough, say, to compare a character like Igantieff to Trudeau but—and this is important to remember—Trudeau governed in an extremely different climate than we have today and stood on, well, principles.
The way going forward for the Liberal Party is not easy, and that’s a point I want to stress. The party needs a complete ground-up renewal and while that is what a lot of prominent members are calling for it isn’t going to be simply done. A serious shake up needs to take place to eliminate fighting amongst the party prominent. A realization needs to be made that what worked as a governing party isn’t going to work in opposition, things need to change and serious policy planks need to be established to differentiate the Liberal brand from Harper’s Conservatives. And the party needs to stop looking back and reliving the old glory days. An honest, earnest focus on the future needs to struck and stuck to if the party is going to genuinely rebuild itself. It’s not something that can be fixed with a particular leader, a particular social media campaign, or a particular among of capital to spread around.
I know I said as few words as possible but let me say one more thing. With Canada’s top three political parties crowding as close as they can to the Canadian political centre it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish who is who. I guarantee you if the average Canadian were given an anonymous sampling of party platforms in most areas they couldn’t pick out which party held which view. To succeed, the Liberal Party needs to stand out and despite similarities there are obvious areas where the party could distinguish itself. I say, going forward, a principled approach is the way to success. Stand for something, plant a flag in the ground, look forward, shake off all those old cobwebs (let them get jobs in the private sector!), and begin the serious hard work of rebuilding what used to be the country’s natural governing party.
That is all.
As a card carrying green party member … I agree
I’m disillusioned with the big party’s. I don’t think the Liberal party is liberal. They are smack dab in the center which to me means they don’t have real values or a real vision. The Liberal vision will morph and pulse with whatever they think will win and keep power … kind of like the CPC.
I’m curious to see if the taste of power turns the NDP into the same …. so close to power they trade their values, their vision in for whatever will get them in the drivers seat.