For the first and perhaps most critical year and half of its time in power the Liberal government will face no opposition. Such is the consequence of the complacently accepted proceedings by which our political parties choose to choose their leaders. And sideline the MPs we elect and whom leaders lead.
The nominal Official Opposition, the Conservative Party, will choose a new leader on May 27, 2017. Members of the party in good standing at March 28, 2017 will vote.
A spending limit of $5,000,000 for leadership candidates implies that Conservatives will for the next fourteen months be putting their money towards puffing their candidates and dissing their rivals rather than calling the Liberals to account and building a war chest for the next election.
It also implies that the new leader may be someone who might have to spend millions to make him or herself known to party supporters and rustle up new members who may not even be party supporters. Is the best new leader not one of a handful of already well known Conservative MPs? Might anyone become leader, a Trump, or a Corbyn?
The attention of the media and Conservatives and politics fans will be on the leadership race. We may not be treated to the sordid spectacle the Republicans have presented in the States, but the candidates will be preening themselves and claiming to have new ideas, which conservatives are not supposed to have, and set a new direction for the party.
What new direction does the party need? Doesn’t it stand for fiscal responsibility, low taxes, government lite, a foreign policy based on Canada’s historic national interests? ‘Direction’ is nothing more than tactics, what to emphasise, whom to pitch to, image, all of which depend on the political conjuncture, which will be one thing in May 2017 and another thing at the next election.
Rona Ambrose was quickly chosen by Conservative MPs and Senators as Interim Leader and well received. But the understanding is that by accepting the interim leadership she has barred herself from becoming leader. Perhaps she would be the best to lead the Tories in the next election. But she mustn’t. The better she performs as interim leader the more poignant the position becomes.
As a ‘caretaker’ leader, Ambrose must cut a wan figure and not upstage the new leader when she or he is chosen. Freed of the reportedly tyrannical leadership of Stephen Harper and surveillance by the PMO Conservative MPs seems perfectly disciplined in marking time until they get their marching orders from the new leader.
In the meantime the party must be a ‘generic’ opposition, scoring points where it can.
The Saudi arms deal was a Conservative achievement. Now they are in opposition they question it. Most of the Liberal platform consisted of pledges to undo things the Conservative government had done. The Conservatives in opposition pick and choose what to make an issue of: stand up for financial transparency and secret ballots for unions and CF-18s bombing ISIS, keep quiet on the long form census and door to door mail delivery.
Those who can remember more than a few months ago may remember the rapturous reception of Michael Chong’s Reform Bill, supposedly empowering MPs to unseat their leader. It was to restore democracy to Parliament Hill. But even had Chong’s bill been passed as he originally presented it, a leader invested by the votes of party members and irreplaceable without a year long contest would have been impregnable.
The new leader of the Conservative Party will not lead me, a member of the party as I have already disclosed. He or she will lead the MPs in the Commons. They should choose who will lead them, rather than patiently wait until the amorphous membership presents them with a leader.
The Opposition is supposed to be an alternative government. What should we do if the Liberals only had a minority, or a small majority subject to erosion by by-elections and defections? If the government fell, there would be no alternative government ready to take over or to fight an election.
Justin Trudeau is Prime Minister because a majority of MPs support him in that role. He has no term, despite many media references to Prime Ministers’ and Premiers’ terms. It’s not going to happen, but it at least should be possible that MPs might think differently and want to support someone else as Prime Minister. That the Liberal Party might split. But at least until May 2017 the Conservative Party is not an alternative government. Nor an opposition. We have for now a one party state. With a complementary personality cult.
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