by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
august 25, 2004
a new poll released last Sunday shows that the Conservative Party of Canada is dropping quickly. The SES/Sun Media Poll, completed on august 11, less than two months after the federal election, shows that the Tories dropped 4 percentage points since Election Day on June 28. It comes as no surprise that the Conservatives‚ fortunes went down the most in atlantic Canada and Ontario.
across the country the Conservative Party is the only party that is on a downward trend. The Liberals, NDP and the Green Party have gained a percentage while support for the Bloc Quebecois rose by 2 per cent. What is truly amazing is that for a poll taken so soon after an election, 14 per cent of respondents were undecided. No doubt those people always will forever remain that way.
Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper has always been known as a policy wonk. a policy wonk is similar to an academic or a professor--in other words, a teacher. and like those in the teaching trade (teachers ceased to be a profession years ago when they surpassed auto workers in the category of time spent on the picket line), Stevie likes to have his summers off. after the election was over, Harper mumbled something about maybe stepping down before he rode off into the sunset. at least, unlike Governor-General Marie adriennette, he didn't fly off in a taxpayer-funded Challenger jet. Canadian taxpayers, who have little to be thankful for, can at least be pleased with that.
Of course, Stephen Harper really does not act like a teacher. If the Province of Ontario is any example at least teachers hang around in the summer to fight the government. Harper just disappears. Until he surfaced last week at a meeting in Ottawa for leaders of the opposition parties, many of us thought he was dead--gone to right-wing heaven where he was trying to merge Ronald Reagan with John Diefenbaker.
To lie low and hide while the country is preparing for its first minority government in 25 years is sheer arrogance. It was a kick in the teeth for those who had supported the party and its leader. If anyone expects the populism of the former Reform/alliance parties, they are going to be sadly disappointed.
When the scandal-ridden Liberals called the election, Harper could have ended up as prime minister. But his silence in the face of a barrage of accusations from Paul Martin that he (Harper) would dismantle the country's health care system and that he was un-Canadian, was deafening. The final straw that caused the downfall of the Conservatives was Harper's statement that Paul Martin was in favour of child pornography. Not only did his failure to apologize show a lack of class but he missed the main issue that he should have been stressing--Paul Martin and the Liberals are soft on crime. and Harper showed his arrogance by spending the final days of the campaign, not in Ontario where support for the party was crucial, but in alberta in the bosom of his Western buddies. While these mistakes were not necessarily fatal to his as remaining party leader, the fact that he whined and then disappeared couldn't help but lead to a further decrease in the party's popularity.
The merger of the Canadian alliance and the Progressive Conservatives as a panacea to solve the problems of Canadian small 'c' conservatives does simply not hold true. When the fact that Molson's and Coors breweries were holding merger talks became public, a reporter for the Edmonton Sun went into a bar to ask customers for their opinions. One patron told her that the merger between the breweries was the same as the merger between the PCs and the alliance--they still came in second--it didn't matter. and as we all found out on June 28, it didn't.
There used to be a time when those who finished second were determined to try harder. But Harper would rather disappear and let the support for his party slide instead of trying to reverse the fortunes of the Conservatives.
When former Reform Party leader Preston Manning became leader he promised to turn Stornoway into a bingo hall. It's a good thing Presto broke that promise.
at least we know where Stephen Harper lives.