A people-less party

By J. L. Jackson
web posted August 6, 2001
	
Although it was a few weeks ago, it seems only yesterday I was
at a barbecue with 250 concerned Canadian Alliance supporters
in Medicine Hat. To outsiders, it might seem surprising that there
are 250 concerned Canadian Alliance supporters left in Alberta,
let alone the party.

Being a concerned Canadian Alliance member myself, I was,
however, not surprised. As I drove from Medicine Hat to
Calgary's caucus meeting the next morning in my dirty black
Neon, I passed farmers fixing fences in their fields, and I
reflected on the fact that life will continue whether this party
survives or not. In the two hours that it took me to get to
Calgary, I also paused to remember what this party was
supposed to be and what it has become.

The Canadian Alliance is a dream for many. Coming from a
Reform background, and being an overall grassy sort of a
grassroots member, I considered the United Alternative process,
merely a name change. Continuing to use the Reform name -
often, others constantly reminded me that, "we're not called that
any more".

Having grown up in the Reform party and naturally tending to
distrust change anyway, it would be easy to blame the ongoing
chaos on a seemingly failed United Alternative attempt. Many
'old' Reformers like myself would like to throw up our hands or
maybe even wag a finger saying, "See, I told you so."

Being an 'old' Reformer of just barely thirty years, I would
describe the history of the Reform party as being based on
populist philosophy and a legitimate need for parliamentary
reform in Ottawa. For us, the Reform party was a beacon of
light on a dark horizon, beaming forth, new ideas and
philosophies.

However, in talking to people and members across this country,
I am surprised to have found that the perception of the Reform
party to a new and younger generation was actually more like, "a
party of grumpy old men." I do not know who or what to blame
for what I consider a misconception: past leadership, a biased
media, or a well-orchestrated Liberal campaign of regional
mistrust.

The ultimate irony is that the United Alternative process and
Stockwell Day's victorious leadership bid, may have failed in
uniting two very different parties, but it opened up what for many
was perceived as being an equally ironic "closed Reform"
process. Cathy Smith, Medicine Hat CA board member, and
her husband Dan have always been very active in politics, but
neither of them ever joined the Reform party. Cathy explains the
viewpoint of many new Canadian Alliance members, "Finally the
people had a party that they really believed in and could get
behind. A leader they liked and had voted for."

In a Survivor style race for Bay Street megabucks between the
dissidents as well as the Day camp, with the spoils going to
whomever gets there first; the urge to merge may be strong but
everyone is forgetting two things.

Firstly, foisting ourselves onto a reluctant Progressive
Conservative party that disagrees with our founding principles
will continue to be a futile exercise. We are the prodigal,
rebellious child who left home in a huff - but has now become a
pioneer. Yet, we're telling mom she must join us on our itinerant
journey? Mom may in fact join us in time, but not while we're
living on the street.

Secondly, now that the membership of both the PC party and
the CA party have been forgotten in this seemingly mad dash for
cash, the question not only remains of who will want to lead this
aberration, but who will want to belong to it as well.

Every day on the news and in the papers we read what
Canadian Alliance party elites are saying. Heck all of Canada is
on a first name basis with the Reform party's former fearless
founders: Chuck, Deb, Art, Monte, Rick, Ken, Nancy and Cliff,
as well as our current Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day.

They've become national celebrities at our expense. From a
Canadian context, their infamy is as great as Britain's Royal
family's scandals of the not so distant past. The dissidents/sore
loser's society/rebel alliance/democratic representative caucus
and many of their appointed colleagues who sit on the CA
governing body called the National Council dominate our daily
dosage of news consumption

The dissidents and their supporters have blatantly disregarded
the will of the people and our one member, one vote decision in
their "dump Day" campaign. At the taxpayer's expense, they
continue on their merry romp through Canada attempting to also
hijack the merger process from the people of the party. From
their press conference in Ottawa announcing the formation of a
new party that isn't party, to their Progressive Conservative
Halifax meetings. They go and we are left behind.

According to CBC's on-line News, Monte Solberg, part of the
newly formed Democratic Representative Caucus as well as
Canadian Alliance MP for Medicine Hat views the leadership of
our party as a sidetracking issue and from his latest foray with
the Tories in Halifax he said, "This is bigger than the leadership
issue and worth pursuing.

"We can't get sidetracked by that [the leadership]." 

Many of our Canadian Alliance elites, our party's greatest
"grassroots" defense team, are not only hijacking the merger
process, they are now also attempting to stall the leadership
race. Their goal has been achieved, but their greatest fear
remains - Stockwell Day could win again. Especially, considering
the remaining membership's feelings, way down deep in the
trenches. The supposedly 'inept' Stockwell Day has
outmaneuvered all of them. As they attempt to manipulate a later
leadership race, they are 'stuck' with Day - that is, until they
allow the leadership race to proceed.

In relentlessly focusing on the never ending blunders coming from
one camp and then the other, main-stream media's downward
spiraling pursuit of personality-cult-journalism, has missed a
much more dramatic and interesting political story - US.

As a truly grassy kind of a grassroots member who would attend
an occasional barbecue if dragged persuasively enough, I was
apparently under the mistaken assumption that our party was
progressing nicely. I lived my life...and voted.

Nowadays, I cringe before I pick up a paper or turn on the
news. I do a little dance of joy if a day goes by and our party has
not made the front-page headlines. How did we come so far and
land so flat on our face?

Indeed it is a slippery slope. I feel like we're back in
kindergarten: standing on top of the slide are our party elites
yelling names at each other. At the same time, we, the members,
have been given the royal heave-ho down the same slide. As
members, we are now sitting in mud up to our noses, at the very
bottom; disheartened, disheveled and disgusted. We are looking
up for common sense and instead all we see is an eyesore on the
Canadian political landscape. Our dream has become our worst
nightmare.

As we continue to lie in the muck licking our wounds, the media
and people within our own party continue to deride our choice of
leader, as well as everything we believe in. Day was apparently
the wrong guy for the job and we're told that we are fools if we
still like him.

What has taken place over the last three months is a shameful
disgrace and has made our core principles a mockery for the
masses. And now that the long knives are turning from our leader
towards our core populist principles and democratic change -
who is left to defend us?

If merger talks continue to proceed strictly for the purpose of
opening Bay Streets coffers and not with the consultation of the
people, the last remaining die-hard constitutionalists and hard-
working volunteers will also fall away.

Forget the big brouhaha about a leaderless party. Top-down
manipulation didn't work for Mulroney and it will certainly not
work for a "grassroots" party like the Canadian Reform
Conservative Alliance. If the political backroom dealers ignore
the remaining members, as it seems is the case, all the money in
the world won't save what remains. It may take as long as the
next election to make the powers that be understand that if not
now, they will very soon be left, with a people-less party.

J.L. Jackson is a member of the Canadian Alliance and a first-
time contributor to Enter Stage Right.

Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com