They already have an NDP interim leader in Bob Rae and now the Liberal Party of Canada will have NDP policies to match. The Grits are meeting this weekend at a policy convention in Ottawa to define themselves – yet again. In its attempt to compete with the socialists for best left-wing performance by a political party, the Liberals are offering a plethora of nonsensical policy initiatives: Resolution #101 encourages Canadians to “minimize reliance on the use of liquid petroleum for transportation,” which I suppose means shutting down the gas pumps. Foreign policy? Forget armed intervention in places like Afghanistan, the Liberals argue in Resolution #64 that we should “create a strategy dedicated to promoting a culture of peace and non-violence” on the world stage. Want to confuse and collectivize our rights even further? Resolution #60 demands “gender-based hate crimes.” Of course you knew that the delegates would want to “legalize and regulate marijuana” (#117) and (#44) strangle ethical oil with another redundant “comprehensive public assessment of the environmental, economic and social impacts of the oil sands developments immediately.”
These might be described as heady days for the Liberals. They just enjoyed the fruits of a political defection this week as former NDP MP Lise St-Denis crossed the floor from a floundering ship to a sinking one. Though Lise may be forgiven for losing interest in the Neo Democrats since half the caucus is away running in an interminable party leadership campaign and those that remain in the House of Commons don’t seem to have the first notion of what the place is all about when they aren’t trying to introduce nonsense legislation like the recent attempt to create a “Department of Peace.” Uh huh. Leave it to the NDP.
But can the Grits be far behind with the kind of policy resolutions like the ones above? Unlike the NDP, who can’t seem to end its leadership race, the Liberals can’t seem to begin. And so we have “interim” party leader Rae, presiding over a policy convention that will not address his leadership. Ever the optimist and sometimes a good comedian Rae kicked off the Liberal love fest by exclaiming:
“This does not look to me like a party that is on its last legs.” If you say so, Bob. Always ready to believe the best, the Toronto Star reported that these immortal words were spoken as Rae “looked out on hundreds of Liberals packed into a ballroom for the weekend convention kickoff.” Hundreds were packed into the room? Were they meeting in a ballroom or a phone booth?
One of the favourite buttons so far is one that reads “Rebuild it and they will come,” which makes a poetic allusion to the baseball flick, “Field of Dreams.” A more appropriate movie reference may be the teaser from the 1986 remake of the Fly: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
Continuing on the same theme, if this convention, with all its odd combination of confusion and bluster, serves to rebrand the Liberal Party, it will as the NDP Part II. Never mind a leadership campaign, the Libs should just stay with Bobby Rae, the former Ontario premier that everyone loves to forget. Until the Liberals decide whether they want to be another socialist party or something approaching support for free enterprise, they would be well advised too put off a leadership campaign indefinitely since no one seems to anxious to inherit the bits and pieces of the shambles that now define what was once a powerful Canadian political institution.
David Krayden is the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies, an independent, not-for-profit institution dedicated to the advancement of freedom and prosperity through the development and promotion of good public policy.