Will this merger work?

[cowman]

The Alliance and Tories are merging in Canada. Do you think this will be a good thing for the country? How about for western Canada? How about the farming community? Or are we once again being led down the garden path?

[Bruce14]

It's good for everyone. Since the decimation of the P.C. party the Liberals have not had any oppostition in parliament.

If Joe Clarke and David Orchard can swallow their pride and lend their support to this effort we may actually see a change in Ottawa's view towards the west.

[Muttley]

The Alliance Party is certainly becoming a revolving door. You never know what their name is this week or who their leader will be.
If there is anyone to blame for having the Liberals in Ottawa it's Preston Manning and his reform. He helped to seperate the P.C. vote. The Alliance should not be joining the P.C. party they should never have formed in the first place. The reform was a western party then they got a touch of victory and have forgetten us to become a national party. Face it, it does not matter who is in power in Ottawa they will forget us.

[jensend]

sorry muttley but any party with david orchard as a significant player has no credibility as a conservative party. he has made fools of the pc's and it is they who have grown old and tired if he can take over a large part of their policy. the pc's need the alliance more than ever.

[ivbinconned]

If a solid merger takes place, I would then predict, that the "Bloc" will slowly disappear and those seats will revert back to there traditional entity...Liberal!
And Prestons 16 year experience will have come full circle. All because of a very poorly laid foundation. What a waste.

[wilagro]

Mulroney and Mazankowski support this merger.
I don't.
Enough said.

[dalek]

If they go with the PC agriculture policy I'll probably support them. If they go with the Alliance ag policies particularly regarding supply management (the actual policies put forth by their candidates, in particular Breitkreitz (sp), not the fake crap they put in their platform to try to trick us in the east) I'll rot in hell before I ever vote for a merged party.
If there's even a hint of this party being more Alliance than PC they'll LOSE support in the east and there'll be more Liberals in Ottawa than ever.

[Muttley]

I agree that if we want a party to have representation from across Canada it can not be the Alliance. The Alliance would be far better off to shut down and become P.C. They believe in the many of the same policies except the P.C. Party is acepted across Canada.

I myself will not vote Alliance at all, I am fed up with their name and leader changing all the time. Until they are done we are stuck with the Liberals.

[cowman]

I have to agree with Muttley that the Alliance has become a joke. They sold out when they changed from a western based party(Reform) to a "national" party. I believe all it did was give westerners hope that they could get a fair deal in confederation. Now we know!
Well we wasted about 15 years on that little delusion and I believe it's time to get back on the old separation train.
Will that ever happen?

[ivbinconned]

Muttley; where have you been?? "The PC's are accepted across Canada"
More accurate would be "the PC's have been rejected across Canada.
It was the PC party that gave rise to the reform movement. And for good reason.
Reforms only downfall was its mistake in going down an old road where other western protest movements had gone before, only to fail, like in the past.
The only question here is, has this all happened because of naivety, or has it been a very succesful procces to deflect western asperations down the same old traveled road where the bridge is washed out. There is evidence to suggest the latter.
Stockwell got "diefenbakered" in the last election and Dalek makes it clear here that if the east doesn't run it...it's not going to happen. Did somebody say Mike Harris?
Cowman is right, seperation should be an option. But there is one other approach that Preston made sure never got off the ground. And had IT been the road traveled by the reform movement Canada would look much different today!