Liberals dying but not dead, says Newman
Federal Liberals say he’s wrong, but Peter C. Newman, author of the recently-released When The Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada, still says the Liberal Party, which led Canada for seven of the last 10 decades, is dying because it’s isolated, has no leader, no power base, no money, no natural allies, no […]
Hey Peter and Ed: we ain’t dead yet
OTTAWA—I am on the verge of scratching a seven-year itch. Liberal delegates to a national convention in Ottawa will choose their next president Jan. 13-15. I am among five candidates for the job. Some would say it is a thankless task. After all, in the last election, the Canadian public sent us to […]
Mirror, mirror on the wall: whose political party is the fairest among them all?
VANCOUVER, B.C.—After last year’s federal election, which saw the Liberal Party sink to third place for the first time in its history, Tories and Dippers alike were gleefully spinning the narrative that the Liberals would bite the dust, once and for all. But in politics, as in war, truth is usually the first casualty. For […]
Liberals need to seize this opportunity to reform, renew and recreate ourselves, now
TORONTO—You can pound out 140 characters and send a tweet in seconds. Many of us do it often every day, almost without thinking. Mistakes can happen. I made a big one last week. Liberals ahead of the NDP, I tweeted instinctively, attaching the latest poll. As soon as the tweet was gone, I wondered […]
Beauty of Copps: she’s loved, despised, and often for same reasons
OTTAWA—There are those who will tell you the federal Liberals need someone to deal with all the unsexy plumbing problems in the party, quietly, with his or her sleeves rolled up and a plunger at their side. And then there’s Sheila Copps, a woman who says she knows a thing or two about dirty […]
No one in Liberal Party emerging to give Harper/Flaherty tandem real run for their money
Billed as a major speech on the economy, Liberal Leader Bob Rae’s address to a Toronto business audience last Wednesday was really an overdue attempt to reframe Liberal economic policy after half-a-decade of distracted neglect. It signaled a belated acknowledgement that the economy—an issue on which the party enjoyed a prohibitive edge less than […]
‘If you took Turner’s experience, who would go into politics?’
Former Liberal prime minister John Turner didn’t engage in character assassinations, thought public service was an honourable profession and “worth doing” and believed in running an “open party.” But all these noble ideals may have contributed to Mr. Turner’s downfall as a political leader, says Paul Litt, author of a new biography on the […]
The withering of the Liberal Party?
TORONTO—The United States has been a model for Canada with respect to the federal principle, the method of selecting party leaders (first by conventions and now primaries), and by constitutionally entrenching a bill of rights. It is after the British pattern, however, that Canadians modelled their Parliamentary institutions, their political parties, and the parties’ […]
Former prime minister Turner’s legacy ‘substantial’
If John Turner had been elected prime minister, Canada would be an entirely different country—there would never have been a Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the Bloc Québécois and Reform parties would likely not have been formed and “the fiscal base for Canadian social democracy would have been stronger and social programs better preserved under […]
The decline of Liberal brand in Canada continues unabated this fall
MONTREAL—Anyone who has ever glanced at surrounding traffic in the side mirror of an automobile is familiar with the warning that objects are closer than they appear. It may be time for the Liberals to affix that message to their party’s windshield. Notwithstanding the party’s victories in Ontario and Prince Edward Island, the decline […]
