Musings —09.20.2012 02:10 PM
—Paul Martin’s right
Never thought you’d see that headline here, eh? But he is.
Just had lunch with a very senior Conservative – friend of Mike Harris, Brian Mulroney, all of them – and he said the same thing.
“This notion that the Liberal Party is dead is total bullshit,” he said.
Martin was right about a lot of things.
Best Finance minister in living memory, and the second worst Prime Minister ( worst place going to Turner as PM ). He is of course absolutely correct in everything he said in this article.
Yeah, like Campbell, Tupper, Abbot, or Bowell were so much better than Martin that he is the second worst PM ever. What an asshat comment to make.
The federal Liberals have been in free fall for nearly a decade. Their brokerage system view of politics is not particularly attractive to voters who are tired of promises to be everything to everyone. If the Liberal Party was actually viable I don’t think the NDP would have increased their vote share to the detriment of the Grits for 4 STRAIGHT ELECTIONS. Something is clearly wrong with this party, and everyone else sees it whether they are a political friend or foe. I think when the party actually looks in the mirror and admits to itself that since Mr. Chretien left it has been out-framed and outworked, then the real rebuilding will begin. How can you get thumped in four straight elections and not realize a change of course is overdue?
Promises to be everything to everyone? You mean like how the Harpercons are fragmenting our tax system to offer tax breaks to target voting groups? It’s not like that is against their whole ideology or something… oh wait, it is? Damn.
I’m no fan of Harper, but the fact remains that he and the NDP have kicked Grit butt for quite some time now. Liberals need to stop all the infighting and show some discipline.
Remember, even with its paltry number of MPs, the Libs still have 17 times more seats than the (Progressive) Conservatives had in 1993. And some say we are dead? Yea, right.
Thank you Mr. Martin, and thanks to you Mr. Kinsella for bringing this to our attention. This needs to be repeated over and over again until it sticks.
It is difficult to see how they come back. The electoral math is difficult.
Their path to seats in the west seems difficult. The hatred of the NEP continues. Especially with a Trudeau in charge.
Also, assuming the upper limit in Quebec is about 30 seats, they need to almost run the table in Ontario (ala Cretien).
I think the NDP winning, as unlikely as it seems, is more likely.
Yes, he is right…except that part about the Liberals being in the middle..
What he’s saying is that that is where the Liberals are supposed to be. They haven’t been in the middle for about a decade now.
No they are not dead, but they will be if they let Harper continue to define them and failing to call out Harper on his many failures isn’t helping.
I agree, the middle-ground is wide open. We’ll need to nudge disaffected Cons (I see more and more of them..) and strategic voters who swung to the NDP just to keep the Con out. That’s more than enough ripe territory to form government.
More and more I’m also liking Garneau. His well-reasoned, gentleman style might be just what the doctor ordered after years of Harper’s schoolyard bullying. I’m becoming a big fan of his. How in the world do you attack a man like that? Any Con attack would backfire by lieu of the fact he’s an honest, intelligent, irreproachable person.