Clout
By
Eric Dowd
Toronto – Ontario Progressive Conservative opposition leader John
Tory is lamenting he does not have enough power in his job, but he is not
exactly a 90-pounds weakling.
Tory
said in an interview marking his first year as leader he has little
leverage to change the policies of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty.
He
also said he has limited clout even in his own party and can get it to
follow him only by persuasion or showing a good example in leadership.
There
is some truth in both his concerns, because he cannot outvote the Liberals
in the legislature, where they have a majority.
He
cannot even force Liberal ministers to give proper answers to questions
there. Most of the time they respond merely they are much smarter than the
Conservatives they replaced, and the rules allow them to answer any way
they want.
Opposition
leaders rarely get as much space in news media as premiers, because what
premiers say affects residents, and they cannot spend public money on
advertisements that promote their parties, unlike many past premiers.
Tory
in dealing with his own party also lacks powers to make any who dissent
toe the line, particularly because he has no positions he can give or
withhold in cabinet or a senate or on provincial boards and commissions.
All
opposition leaders have had to face this limitation and a Liberal MPP once
thumbed his nose at his leader in opposition by telling a public meeting
`leaders come and leaders go.’ No-one in his party is challenging Tory
anyway.
But
some opposition parties have helped force governments to change their
policies and, while governments mostly dig their own graves, push them in.
McGuinty
as opposition leader played a part in prompting a Conservative government
to stop ministers spending on personal use as if they were Conrad Black on
vacation and gave it a last shove by focusing on its record of weakening
services and urging `choose change.’
Mike
Harris, the last Conservative premier to win an election, led the smallest
party in the legislature, but accused the then New Democrat government of
overspending so often he became known as its main critic, which he
emphasized by calling himself `The Taxfighter,’ a bit hokey.
Harris
helped force the NDP to retreat from some promises, including one to
provide public auto insurance, and while in opposition promoted a package
of promises to cut taxes and government so in an election in 1995, he
vaulted over the two other parties into government.
A
growing number disagree with his policies, but this was an opposition
party that really showed it could influence events
The
NDP earlier in opposition painstakingly built up policies on every issue,
in heated debates in steamy conventions over many years, to capitalize
when the two traditionally bigger parties lost the confidence of voters
simultaneously in 1990.
The
Liberals under premier David Peterson called an election a year early on
bogus grounds and were not believed by voters, who had kicked out the
Conservatives only five years earlier because they had become arrogant,
refusing to debate on TV and diverting public money to friends, and were
in no rush to bring them back.
The
NDP by contrast seemed serious about issues and was not offending voters
and they turned to it for the first time.
Peterson
as opposition leader in 1985 gave his party a large boost to power when he
hit on the idea of promising to allow Canadian beers and wines to be sold
in small grocery stores.
Much
of the media lapped this up and pictured Peterson as a young, modern,
urban leader, poised to make dramatic change, although he oddly never even
passed the promised law when he became premier.
Opposition
parties do not have all the powers of governments, but they are not
exactly helpless and Tory has worked in party backrooms long enough to
know this – he just likes being seen as an underdog.
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