TIME
TO GO BACK TO BASICS FOR THE LIBERALS
by
Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
Abraham Lincoln once declared “you can fool the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but cannot fool all the people all the time.” The Liberal Party of Canada—the one we’ve enjoyed, so to speak, from the arrival of Pierre Trudeau to the present time—hasn’t paid much attention to this sage advice, it seems.
Before 1968, the Liberal Party was about social issues, foreign politics, economic achievements. It was the party of the free trader and, at the same time, against “American imperialism.” It was mainly at about the time of the execution of Louis Riel that the Liberals were identifying themselves with the aspirations of the people of Quebec.
However, before they could become a modern political organization, they had to wait for the arrival of Wilfrid Laurier. He used the support from Quebec to build a modern Liberal Party and become a party ready to govern the country. He had more immigration into Western Canada, and created new provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Later, they promoted an independent foreign policy with its own defence capacities, and worked for the creation of a social safety net. Then it was Lester Pearson that became the champion of the so-called “progressive social policy,” and put Canada on the political international map.
It was at that time that Canada created the mother’s allowance, universal health care, the old age pension and many other social programs. Yes, they did need a push from the New Democratic Party’s Tommy Douglas and the Canadian Labour Congress, but the Liberal government made it.
However, since the arrival of Pierre Trudeau, the Liberal Party has become big on ideas, but narrow in scope.
Most of the party’s policies were not economically or socially-driven, but everything has been evolving around cultural or ethnocultural issues becoming the party of the “ethnics” and all Canadians convinced that they were the only politicians to save us from the separatists.
Of course, in the early 1970s it made some sense, but the Liberals have not been able to move on and have remained the party of the “federalists” and the “ethnics.” Last Monday’s provincial election in Quebec has proven that “federalism” is re-called merchandise and will soon be removed from the shelves, and “ethnics” cannot be taken for granted any longer.
What happened to Liberal MP Joe Volpe during the leadership campaign has left its marks. It is not a coincidence that after the Montreal convention two of the Liberal MPs that parked themselves outside the Liberal Party, were former supporters of Volpe: Wajid Khan and Joe Comuzzi.
So, going back to Lincoln: it is time that the Liberals realize that the farce about federalism and multiculturalism, not the ones they preach, but the ones they practise, is over.
If the Liberals want again to be taken seriously, in Quebec and outside, they need to go back to the party of Wilfrid Laurier and Lester Pearson, the party with real ideas, real programs, and without gimmicks like federalism and phony multiculturalism.
