Tuesday, April 12, 2005

POLITICS AS USUAL

Mader, despite abandoning Canada for Texas, still understands Canadian politics, or at least he can recognize the same old pattern of Canadian politics when he sees it. Today he writes,

Conservatives are so terrified of being demonized for asserting conservative positions that they've convinced themselves that simply not being Liberals will be enough.
It may be enough this spring. But then what? Lacking a coherent governing philosophy, a Tory government will inevitably either disappoint by being more conservative than expected, or disappoint by being the same old story. Canadians may have a good reason to vote Tory next month. But the Conservative Party is giving them absolutely no reason to vote Tory thereafter.
Exactly.

Stephen Taylor has been going on about the bankruptcy of the Liberal 'brand' (an aside; I hate the terms of 'branding' applied to political parties, but that's probably the Liberal's own fault more than anyone's). Really though, this situation, as it unfolds, looks a lot like the the natural pattern that occurred throughout the twentieth-century in Canadaian politics. Namely, long stints of Liberal government punctuated by one or two term Conservative governments at times when the public finally got tired of the Natural Governing Party.

For much of Canadian political history most voters have framed their election decision in terms of voting for or against the Liberals. Nothing the Conservatives are doing right now is changing that mentality. And that is not good for them or the country.

Posted by Matthew @ 11:05 a.m.