Today's SP Opinion column (May 18/11) deals with the rebuilding of the Liberal Party. One opinion is that by placing restrictive rules for an interim leader it will do itself more harm than good by over-looking party stalwarts
One of the concerns flagged is the restriction that the leader must be bilingual, thus eliminating the possibility of Ralph Goodale taking that post. I was surprised to learn that Goodale was not bilingual after his many years in Parliament and amused to think that Quebec, who just elected an MP that is not bilingual and has never been to the constituency she will represent, would care if the Liberal leader was bilingual.
On the other hand, if Bob Rae becomes leader it will be difficult to regain Liberal Party identity in vote rich Ontario if the Party is led by a well-known former Ontario NDP Premier. And it will still take more time for the West to forget the National Energy Program and the attempted robbery ot its resources by a former Liberal government.
The editorial concludes that the Liberal party needs to select a leader with substance rather than style. I don't know if that means Ralph doesn't style but substance, or vice versa.
I think the Liberals need to drop the arrogance and blatant lust for power, develop their own policies rather that dressing up the policies of the NDP and start listening to the people. I suspect it will mean out with the old guard and in with the new in order for that to happen.
Pull out the bugle and get ready to sound the call.
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Are the Liberals still around? I thought they just kind of.... you know.... died off.
ReplyDeleteIn an interesting opinion, I'm guessing in 2025 Saskatchewanians will be studying the provincial NDP much like people are looking at today's Federal Liberals. The NDP may never return to power again in this province.
You'd have thought they would have learned from their last beating, but party is still being run in same old shitty ways.
Shitty ways which continue to attract larger and larger crowds at party events. Political parties tend to see a decrease in turnout for events when they are on the decline and that is not the case for the Saskatchewan NDP.
ReplyDeleteThe Sask NDP may never see power again unless they shift away from their hard pro-labour at any cost position and appeal more to the majority of the population.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, the people moving to Saskatchewan (ie all the new voters) aren't going to be voting for a party hell bent at killing their source of income or taxing and discretionary income to pay off the unions.
The times are a changin....