Liberals -- they're not sorry
by Peter O'Donnell
"Love means never having to say you're sorry." Be that as it may, Liberal means you can never find a reason to be sorry.
I've been waiting since the height of the Gomery inquiry to hear any kind of reasonable apology from the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, to the Canadian people, for massive abuse of public trust, something that we all know the Gomery inquiry showed only a small "tip of the iceberg" when much greater fraud was probably a constant theme.
I was also hoping the Canadian electorate would see their duty in this matter in January, and place the Liberals in a deeper hole than 102 seats (it was 103, but David Emerson broke ranks -- who can blame him, really?).
Perhaps it was too much to expect the likes of Paul Martin and other senior long-term Liberals to offer a mea culpa, and Jean Chrétien seems more concerned with his own legal rights than ours (figures, after Bill C-250).
However, I was hoping that relatively new Liberal leadership contenders like Michael Ignatieff would make it clear that they were in favour of reform within the great national institution. Instead, in making his announcement for the leadership on Friday, Ignatieff wanted to place the emphasis on fighting conservatism and Stephen Harper. As several FD members pointed out in a discussion thread, Iggy is following the traditional Liberal path of fighting conservative policy without a reasoned argument, just the same old blanket condemnation that the main-stream media have always taken for granted, in our recent headlong rush to progressive nirvana.
But it isn't good enough, and the Conservative Party of Canada needs to make this clear at every turn. The Liberal Party has not earned a free pass on the Gomery findings, and more to the point, the voters in our three largest cities need to be reminded that our largest cities don't get a free pass on public morality and decency either. Just because you live in an "urban setting" doesn't mean that the values of the Canadian people stop having any relevance within the borders of these cities -- we have a federal system, but we do not have city states as per the Middle Ages.
Before the Liberal Party has even the tiniest amount of credibility in Canada, it has to make a more sincere and deeply rooted set of reforms within its own house, before it starts to advise Canadians how they should live their lives. This condition has not been met, and in fact, it is nowhere close to being met. Until it is met, the Conservative government, and in particular the Prime Minister, need to remind Canadians that there is much unfinished business resulting from the Gomery process. They could add without much additional research, that there are vast parallel areas of concern, involving the senior levels of the Liberal establishment, and their long-term abuse of the public trust. For example, there are many questions about the specifics of Canada's involvement in oil-for-food, various UN scandals, and the patronage issues surrounding Kyoto.
Liberals may be in a state of denial and may be quite capable of kidding themselves, but they do not own Canada like some sort of private trust, or at least, I should say, they ought not to be allowed that freedom.
Michael Ignatieff says he is a serious person and implies that we conservatives are not bright enough to function in his utopian world. Whatever the merits of that idea, we are smart enough to realize that Canada should not be governed by a criminal conspiracy. It turned out that the majority of the voters agreed with that, but not by a large enough margin to satisfy this observer.
I would suggest there are two main changes the Liberals need to make. The first is to stop thinking of themselves as entitled to govern and entitled to take large amounts of patronage. The second is to clean up their act before returning to the political fray, and when they do return, to treat their conservative opponents with respect. We have the absolute right to promote our view of Canada, and they have no right to imply otherwise.
by Peter O'Donnell
"Love means never having to say you're sorry." Be that as it may, Liberal means you can never find a reason to be sorry.
I've been waiting since the height of the Gomery inquiry to hear any kind of reasonable apology from the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, to the Canadian people, for massive abuse of public trust, something that we all know the Gomery inquiry showed only a small "tip of the iceberg" when much greater fraud was probably a constant theme.
I was also hoping the Canadian electorate would see their duty in this matter in January, and place the Liberals in a deeper hole than 102 seats (it was 103, but David Emerson broke ranks -- who can blame him, really?).
Perhaps it was too much to expect the likes of Paul Martin and other senior long-term Liberals to offer a mea culpa, and Jean Chrétien seems more concerned with his own legal rights than ours (figures, after Bill C-250).
However, I was hoping that relatively new Liberal leadership contenders like Michael Ignatieff would make it clear that they were in favour of reform within the great national institution. Instead, in making his announcement for the leadership on Friday, Ignatieff wanted to place the emphasis on fighting conservatism and Stephen Harper. As several FD members pointed out in a discussion thread, Iggy is following the traditional Liberal path of fighting conservative policy without a reasoned argument, just the same old blanket condemnation that the main-stream media have always taken for granted, in our recent headlong rush to progressive nirvana.
But it isn't good enough, and the Conservative Party of Canada needs to make this clear at every turn. The Liberal Party has not earned a free pass on the Gomery findings, and more to the point, the voters in our three largest cities need to be reminded that our largest cities don't get a free pass on public morality and decency either. Just because you live in an "urban setting" doesn't mean that the values of the Canadian people stop having any relevance within the borders of these cities -- we have a federal system, but we do not have city states as per the Middle Ages.
Before the Liberal Party has even the tiniest amount of credibility in Canada, it has to make a more sincere and deeply rooted set of reforms within its own house, before it starts to advise Canadians how they should live their lives. This condition has not been met, and in fact, it is nowhere close to being met. Until it is met, the Conservative government, and in particular the Prime Minister, need to remind Canadians that there is much unfinished business resulting from the Gomery process. They could add without much additional research, that there are vast parallel areas of concern, involving the senior levels of the Liberal establishment, and their long-term abuse of the public trust. For example, there are many questions about the specifics of Canada's involvement in oil-for-food, various UN scandals, and the patronage issues surrounding Kyoto.
Liberals may be in a state of denial and may be quite capable of kidding themselves, but they do not own Canada like some sort of private trust, or at least, I should say, they ought not to be allowed that freedom.
Michael Ignatieff says he is a serious person and implies that we conservatives are not bright enough to function in his utopian world. Whatever the merits of that idea, we are smart enough to realize that Canada should not be governed by a criminal conspiracy. It turned out that the majority of the voters agreed with that, but not by a large enough margin to satisfy this observer.
I would suggest there are two main changes the Liberals need to make. The first is to stop thinking of themselves as entitled to govern and entitled to take large amounts of patronage. The second is to clean up their act before returning to the political fray, and when they do return, to treat their conservative opponents with respect. We have the absolute right to promote our view of Canada, and they have no right to imply otherwise.