Categories for Musings

The problem with the Conservative Party of Canada is that it is the Conservative Parties of Canada.

That’s the real dilemma facing the Official Opposition. That’s the real reason they ousted Erin O’Toole as leader. And that’s why they are unlikely to win any elections anytime soon.

The Conservative Party of Canada isn’t singular. It’s plural. It is literally two political visions — one Western-based, rural and angry. The other: central Canadian, urban and progressive.

They weren’t always like that.   But now they are just that: two warring factions pretending to be one political alternative — the Reform one, and the Progressive Conservative one.   Two siblings living under the same roof, hating each other, resenting each other, unable to agree on anything.

Erin O’Toole made many mistakes.   That’s clear.   

But ignoring the civil war within Canada’s conservative movement wasn’t one of them.   In fact, O’Toole regularly attempted to be on both sides of the civil war — on carbon taxes, on vaccinations, on assault weapons, on social issues.   On everything.

His big mistake was that he was up and down like a toilet seat.   He tried to make everyone happy, and thereby ended up making everyone unhappy.   Just this week, we saw yet more evidence of that.

First, he said he wasn’t going to meet with the Omniconvoy truckers.   Then he said he would.   Then he condemned them for desecrating the War Memorial.   At the end of it, you couldn’t be certain if he wanted to arrest the truckers, or drive a rig onto the Hill himself.

His predecessor, Andrew Scheer, made the same mistake. He’d profess to be a tolerant, diverse, modern conservative – and then he’d sit down for an interview with Faith Goldy, who the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith has termed a “white supremacist,” quote unquote.

Under former prime minister Stephen Harper, the modern-era Conservative Party was two parties, too. Harper — being the guy who brought together the warring conservative factions with Peter MacKay (more on him in a moment) — knew that he was the father of two siblings who hated each other’s guts.

Not so subtly, he’d signal which side he favoured — expelling MPs who tried to reignite the abortion and gay marriage debate.   Spending like a proverbial sailor during the great global financial crash of 2008-2009.   Reaching a residential school settlement with Indigenous victims.

But occasionally, he’d throw a bone to the troglodyte faction, to keep them in line: stuff like the “barbaric practices” hotline (which cost them power and should still serve as a lesson they still haven’t learned).

But mainly, Harper kept the two conservative parties in line with fear.   Members of his caucus were afraid of him.   They knew he was smarter and more strategic than they were, and they knew what would happen to them if they got out of line.

Erin O’Toole didn’t inspire fear.   He inspired contempt and derision.   

He was, as I liked to say, remarkably unremarkable.   We never knew what his passion was.   We never got to see what was inside his heart, in his gut.   He tried to be all things to all people, and ended up being nothing at all.  

Where does the Conservative Party go from here?   

I suspect they’ll reject urban, moderate, experienced choices like MacKay — who was always a better choice than O’Toole — and embrace anger.   They’ll go with one of the Opposition MPs who are good at opposition, but you can’t ever picture in government.   As prime minister.

As he packs up at Stornoway, O’Toole can comfort himself with one thing: it was never going to work out.

Because the one party you ran to lead, Mr. O’Toole?

It’s two parties.

— Kinsella was special assistant to Jean Chretien

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Let’s do a recap, shall we?

People partying on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

People defacing the statue of Terry Fox.

People breaking into the Shepherds of Good Hope to take food that was being prepared for poor people.

People assaulting and abusing reporters who were there to cover the protest. People assaulting and abusing homeless people.

People blocking ambulance crews, apparently leading to at least one preventable trauma patient’s death.

People urinating and defecating all over the place — urinating on the War Memorial, defecating on the property of a family displaying the Pride flag.

People threatening teenagers at fast food places because the teenagers politely asked them to wear a mask.

People parking wherever they want, and screaming at passersby, and having drinking parties around the clock.

And, of course, people displaying swastikas and Confederate flags and calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be assassinated.

That’s just some of the stuff that went on in Ottawa this weekend. That’s based on what I have seen with my own eyes, or from uncontradicted news reports by organizations like this one.

It happened. It’s real. And it’s been condemned by everyone from a Liberal prime minister to a Progressive Conservative Ontario premier.

Oh, by the by, don’t start telling us in the media how to do our damn job. Our job is not to provide sunny ways reports about the majority of people at the protest obeying the law.

That’s not news. People are supposed to obey the law. Obeying the law and acting like a civilized human being is not news, ever.

But when someone holds up a Nazi flag near Parliament, and thousands of other people don’t do a damn thing about it? That’s news.

As for the suggestion that we are on the Trudeau government’s payroll? That’s more than laughable. That’s a lie of Nazi-like proportions, frankly. A big one.

This newspaper has relentlessly documented the failings of Justin Trudeau‘s government. And this writer, to be blunt, does more to bring about the end of the Trudeau government — in a single afternoon — than most of you would do in 10 lifetimes.

So, take some responsibility, folks. If you were there, or you supported those who were there — and if you are in any way honest — you know that this weekend looked really, really ugly to a lot of regular, unaffiliated voters. Normal people. Not just so-called Lefties.

Now, most of the protesters were not there because of vaccines. They were there to oppose Justin Trudeau‘s government. That’s fine. I oppose it, too.

But here’s the problem, Trudeau critics: The people you have now alienated are the people you needed to reach.

Since you are not going to dethrone him with some nutbar manifesto removing all elected Members of Parliament, and then creating a whackadoodle regime where we are governed by an unelected Governor General and some unelected senators. That is crazy. It is insane.

No, if you are going to remove Justin Trudeau, you needed to reach other voters, folks. You need to make those voters less enthusiastic about him. In an election.

But this weekend‘s events in Ottawa didn’t do that. This weekend‘s events did the exact opposite. This weekend’s events turned many, many normal people off.

Until someone comes up with an alternative, we live in a democracy. To win in a democracy, you need to win over the majority.

You didn’t do that, trucker fans. You did the opposite.

And, along the way, you have re-elected Justin Trudeau.

Good job.

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