Being relevant is the keyword. What I worry about is half-assed ideas that some will try and pass off as reform, revealing a mindset that can be summed up as “anything for power.” The Liberals to be a party of ideas again. That starts with people saying “well, you know there are a lot of things I’m not really that happy about in the way this country is going. Here’s what we can do to fix that.”
‘For Kinsella, inviting defeated candidates who ran under former leader Michael Ignatieff’s banner is a sign the Liberals are moving in the right direction.’
An observation of the Liberal Party (of which I remain a member) that I’ve been making lately:
Many Liberal partisans see “getting into power” as an end. It’s not – it’s a means to the end of implementing a vision for Canada.
To be successful, you have to stand for something – a big idea, like Trudeau’s multiculturalism, the Charter of Rights or health care. The Conservatives have a (scary) vision for Canada. The NDP have theirs. In the last election, what was ours? There wasn’t one.
The Liberal Party needs to figure out what it stands for, and must be more than just “the centrist party.” If the Liberal Party exists solely as a mechanism for people to advance their careers, then it should be dissolved.
The LPC needs a big idea and I believe that big idea is moving health care from a provincial to a federal jurisdiction. Economies of scale would be better achieved with one administration rather than multiple provincial ones. Health care is only going to eat up more of a budget going forward and changes are needed. The LPC should also get behind championing limited private health care too.
Related to those points, I personally think the LPC has to quit focusing on Harper so much and being so consistently reactive to Harper. Harper feeds on and exploits this tendency by deliberately doing things that he knows will wind up Liberals. If Liberals instead focused on coming up with programs and policies that would benefit Canada, that IMO would get the Liberals out of this perennial pissing match with the CPC and Harper which turns most Canadians off (i.e., most normal Canadians who are neither partisans nor political junkies).
Being relevant is the keyword. What I worry about is half-assed ideas that some will try and pass off as reform, revealing a mindset that can be summed up as “anything for power.” The Liberals to be a party of ideas again. That starts with people saying “well, you know there are a lot of things I’m not really that happy about in the way this country is going. Here’s what we can do to fix that.”
I agree with your post wholeheartedly…..but as Mr Kinsella stated….he wont hold his breath…..I wont either…….
‘For Kinsella, inviting defeated candidates who ran under former leader Michael Ignatieff’s banner is a sign the Liberals are moving in the right direction.’
Yes, it’s a good start.
An observation of the Liberal Party (of which I remain a member) that I’ve been making lately:
Many Liberal partisans see “getting into power” as an end. It’s not – it’s a means to the end of implementing a vision for Canada.
To be successful, you have to stand for something – a big idea, like Trudeau’s multiculturalism, the Charter of Rights or health care. The Conservatives have a (scary) vision for Canada. The NDP have theirs. In the last election, what was ours? There wasn’t one.
The Liberal Party needs to figure out what it stands for, and must be more than just “the centrist party.” If the Liberal Party exists solely as a mechanism for people to advance their careers, then it should be dissolved.
The LPC needs a big idea and I believe that big idea is moving health care from a provincial to a federal jurisdiction. Economies of scale would be better achieved with one administration rather than multiple provincial ones. Health care is only going to eat up more of a budget going forward and changes are needed. The LPC should also get behind championing limited private health care too.
I like it, for a lot of reasons.
I think we need to be careful about trying to find the one big idea that will put us over the top, though. We need the one big style instead.
Related to those points, I personally think the LPC has to quit focusing on Harper so much and being so consistently reactive to Harper. Harper feeds on and exploits this tendency by deliberately doing things that he knows will wind up Liberals. If Liberals instead focused on coming up with programs and policies that would benefit Canada, that IMO would get the Liberals out of this perennial pissing match with the CPC and Harper which turns most Canadians off (i.e., most normal Canadians who are neither partisans nor political junkies).