The Man who destroyed a Party
The National Post's Adam Radwanski has an eye opening article on the Liberal Party of Canada.
It's his belief that Paul Martin's legacy will likely be that of the man who single-handedly destroyed the most dominant political party in Canadian history.
It's his belief that Paul Martin's legacy will likely be that of the man who single-handedly destroyed the most dominant political party in Canadian history.
In stark contrast, Martin inherited the country's dominant party -- one with more swagger than it knew what to do with. And by the time he was done with it, little more than two years later, it had been reduced to a snivelling side-show.
posted by Christian Conservative @ 3:12 p.m.
4 Comments:
At Fri Jun 16, 04:42:00 p.m. EDT,
Anonymous said…
While Martin screwed up during his tenure at the head of the LPC and as PM and therefore bears some responsibility for the current mess that is the LPC, I also believe it is a bit much to say that Martin singe-handedly destroyed the party. The sponsorship scandal is his legacy ‘let there be no doubt’, but 12 consecutive years of Liberal rule and the reunification of the conservative parties in Canada have also played their part.
The financial mess the party is in likely has less to do with Martin and more to the fact that the party had gotten complacent. The lack of any high profile candidates in the Liberal leadership race is also partly a result of the party's current situation, but surely others chose not to enter for various other reasons unrelated to that. Right now the Conservatives are flying high, but it’s only been one election win, and a small one at that. Even with a Conservative victory in the next election it would still be premature to write-off the LPC to the annals of history.
The Liberals still enjoy broad support across the country, but the party needs to clean house before it can legitimately contend for power. The Democrats have shown how not to form an opposition (in the hopes of being returning to the majority) after a long period in power, I wonder if the Liberals will look south and take notes?
At Fri Jun 16, 07:13:00 p.m. EDT,
Anonymous said…
An equal measure of credit should also go to Preston Manning and the Reform Party fiasco that virtually gave the Liberals free reign for more than a decade.
I am just glad that a "majority" (well what do you expect in our 5 party system) has finally seen the light and we now have a Conservative at the helm.
I hope the Liberals are stupid enough to somehow cause a fall election.
I am of the opinion that the Harper Conservatives can win a real majority the next time around.
At Fri Jun 16, 11:35:00 p.m. EDT,
Christian Conservative said…
I also think you're dead on there Loki... I'm in the middle of reading "Grits" by Christina McCall-Newman, an overview of the Liberal Party from the late 1940's to the early 1980's, and my conclusions thus far match yours. In the 1940's, 50's, and into the early 60's, they truely were the "centrist" party, often viewed as the social concience of the nation. Trudeau and his cronies (there were many) took over with their "new vision", of Marxist philosophy and began an experiment in social engineering unlike anything Canada had seen before.
And look where we are now. If not for him, many of the issues we face today would not be before us.
Canada truely was a great nation under men like Pearson and St. Laurent... we reached our pinacle right around that time. Trudeau started things that have caused us to lose our place of respect in the world.
But don't you all flame me quite yet... I'm only 2/3 the way through the book, so my conclusions may change. ;-)
At Sat Jun 17, 03:06:00 p.m. EDT,
Blake Kennedy said…
And to say that even socialist thought is ergo Marxist is ridiculous. Any first year PoliSci prof would kick anybody out of the class who tried to make that case. Rightfully so.
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