Media and cocktail party chatter has recently suggested the natural configuration of a democratic nation is two parties -- one on the Right and the other the Left.
By this logic there is little room for a party of the middle and so we Liberals ought to just fade away and divide up into Conservatives or NDPs.
There's an advantage (obviously) for the Conservatives and NDPs to suggest this.
And we do have to do some work (well, a lot of work) to keep relevant and be a viable government in waiting.
But the idea that middle of the road parties are toast isn't borne out by international evidence. The USA does seem to have two polarised parties (and it does that country little good). But other countries (Great Britain seems an obvious example; but there are others in Europe) have several parties and middle of the road parties survive and prosper in all.
Indeed, as I have argued elsewhere, the Conservative success has been achieved in part by moving to the middle.
Social conservative issues (save for some grandstanding in criminal justice and funding of progressive groups) have been largely ignored. A Conservative Party that ignores social conservative issues (and which merely whispers 'we care') is hardly very conservative.
As for spending? Well, conservative fiscal policy is hardly what we have seen or what is proposed.
Regardless, we Liberals need to stick to our knitting and fix the internal issues that have plagued us. We need to enuciate clearly what we stand for and why people of faith and rural Canada should look on us as speaking for them. We have to focus on liberty for Canadians with competent fiscal policy.
There is indeed much to do -- but it can be done and there is plenty of room for a socially progressive fiscally conservative party. There is lots of space for the Liberal Party of Canada.
1 comment:
The NDP position is rather more nuanced than suggested here.
I would bet that most NDPers find room in the political spectrum for a Liberal party - not necessarily as a 'party of the middle' (the left-right spectrum model is not suited for a reasoned discussion of political affiliation) but as a party of economic conservatism and social liberalism.
But in a multy-party environment, the first-past-the-post system of representation is inappropriate. The Liberal Party is today feeling the pain of its failure. There should be a mechanism of preferential balloting, or better, proportional representation, in order to represent the true spectrum of Canadian political opinion.
The NDP has long called for such a system, and the Liberals have long opposed it. Today, instead of misrepresenting the NDP position in the new Parliament, it may be wiser for the Liberals to reconsider its position on the structure of the Canadian electoral system.
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