Musician and producer Andy Moor’s
lyric “Undeserved” lacks little contextual ambiguity when offered as counsel to the Provincial P.C. Caucus.
"Remember when you still believed in everyone" is a line that evokes melancholy and the certainty that there were better times. But this stanza contains a message of foreboding:
It’s a
lonely place to dwell
Remembering when you still had your future
No one ever comes out quite the same
They’ll never trust themselves again
With anyone
Give no
one your faith
Undeserved
I don't know if the Tory Caucus has ever been described as authentic in the way fans describe Moor. For this piece to make its point, even if a few Members are genuine will be enough. Let's turn
up the volume for them.
Few, but
the most hard of hearing, would disagree that this Government awaits deafeat in the next general election.
While a
year is said to be a lifetime in politics, it is tough to imagine any
opportunity remains for Tory redemption.
The Leadership contest was supposed to reinvigorate the Party and calm a bewildered public following Kathy Dunderdale’s ghastly leadership. But, if anything, matters have worsened. Frank Coleman was possibly the worst outcome of a non-race even if he can’t be faulted for Bill Barry’s premature withdrawal.
The Leadership contest was supposed to reinvigorate the Party and calm a bewildered public following Kathy Dunderdale’s ghastly leadership. But, if anything, matters have worsened. Frank Coleman was possibly the worst outcome of a non-race even if he can’t be faulted for Bill Barry’s premature withdrawal.
The race,
from the beginning, revolved around Danny Williams’ choice (for a second time). The obvious implication is that the P.C.
Party has been hi-jacked by him. His overbearing
influence, at minimum, constituted a warning to Bill Barry and a message to
others that the Race was already closed.
Except for
a General Election, on what remedy can anyone rely to affect a change of leadership? The question is peculiar for a peculiar
reason.
The party
system, which supports British style parliamentary democracies, is well known for
its ability to facilitate the election of Leaders. But for a few like Britain and Australia most
systems, including Canada’s, possess an inability to dispatch leaders when they
become ineffective or out of touch.
That said, while far more difficult for a host of reasons the
lack of a formal mechanism does not restrict any Caucus from taking an action
when one is essential. They do so for their
own survival.
Very likely,
it was the Tory Caucus that messaged Kathy Dunderdale as she enjoyed a southern
vacation. When she met the Caucus, on
the morning of her resignation, it was merely to inform rather than to engage them.
The Premier
of Alberta, Alison Redford, was likely told by her Caucus to move on when she
became embroiled in a spending scandal; her predecessor Ed Stelmach received a
similar instruction.
Why do we
need to entertain this discussion when a new Tory Leader is on the way?
Because, as this scribe submitted in a prior Post, Mr. Coleman is DOA – dead on
arrival.
Frank
Coleman’s default to victory has imposed on the Party a Leader who can only
drag it down further; one who cannot possibly inspire the electorate to be merciful.
Hence, we
are right to ask if the Caucus will again assume its historic role now that the
Convention has been robbed of its essential function. Is it ready to perform what may well
constitute a ‘first’ in the Commonwealth and invoke a coup d’état in advance of
a coronation?
The
departure of Dunderdale, ahead of her own schedule, could well embolden the
Caucus to take action again.
Last week’s
Liberal Party Dinner at $500 a head suggests a new slant on an old invocation:
“follow the money”. The contractors,
engineering firms, and other business types who crowded the Delta Hotel
Ballroom to sup with Dwight Ball were chiefly the same faces who attended a
similar affair for the Tories just last year.
The men and women in suits sense change is in the wind.
The March,
2014 CRA Poll placed support for the Liberal Party at 53%. Now consider that the Tory Leadership process
has miscarried; add in cost overruns at Muskrat, a devastating PUB Report on
Nalcor’s incompetence regarding DarkNL and the Humber Valley Paving affair, the
next CRA numbers can hardly be expected to turn around.
The Caucus likely
suffers no illusion that the Report of the A-G, regardless of its conclusion, is
a fix for the Tories’ ills. On the
Street the verdict is already in.
The larger
issue, right now, is whether the Party can recapture a shred of dignity even if
it needs to be banished until it is renewed and repaired.
The Caucus
can begin by insisting that the July 5th Convention count for
something.
How?
First, it
should tell Frank Coleman that they have no faith in him, that his services are
not required.
Second, it
should insist that the Convention be used to give effect to much needed change
to the Party’s Constitution. Such change
would permit the substitution of the delegated leadership process with a direct
election system recently used to good effect by the Provincial Liberals. While it is far from a perfect system, it is
less subject to unwarranted influence by power brokers like Williams.
Third, start
the leadership process again.
The cost of
the direct voting system may actually be less expensive and more financially controllable
than a delegated system. It might also attract
some solid candidates who were scared off by a ‘fix’ in which Caucus solidarity
was used as a weapon.
This recipe
is no guarantee of anything. After all,
fallout from the legacy of Dunderdale, and now Marshall and Coleman continues
to pile up.
Still, doing
nothing is certain to guarantee the Tories’ obliteration.
To echo Andy
Moor: “You know it’s not easy…It’s a
lonely place to be”
Trying
a new plan to replace one destined to fail will take some courage, but not a lot.
Amendments
to the P.C Party’s Constitution must be filed 30 days prior to the Convention
which will also constitute the Party’s AGM.
The Caucus doesn’t
have much time to get its dance steps right. For that reason they might take a moment to reflect on Andy
Moor’s sure-footed warning……….
GIVE NO ONE
YOUR FAITH UNDESERVED.