Tuesday, November 18, 2003

LIBERAL HEGEMONY

After almost a week long absence Paul Wells has lots to say today on Conrad Black, Paul Martin and the opposition parties.

On the topic of the oppostion parties he writes:

"But I was struck, as I usually am lately, by the distance between the behaviour of Liberals and the behaviour of everyone else. The Liberals act as a governing party. The others act as institutionalized heckling teams who don't ever intend on governing, ever."

That's his emphasis, but it is the key point. The opposition parties in this country have just about forgoten what it means to govern. In fact, most of them have never known what it means to govern. The only party left with any institutional memory of governance is the Progressive Conservative party and they have fewer than half a dozen MP's with actual governing experience, plus they are on the way to committing ritual suicide.

This is a serious problem. As Wells points out, opposition parties become governing parties by acting like governing parties. But if the oppostion has collectively forgotten, or worse never knew, how to do that, well...

Posted by Matthew @ 3:20 p.m.