CKNW Editorial
for April 13, 2000

Now that Jean Chretien has taken his vast knowledge of foreign affairs to
the Middle East and tuned everyone up there perhaps we should send him to Northern Ireland where his intimate knowledge of Irish politics can be put to good use. Following that, why not to Taipei and Beijing so he can use his sharp wits and sagacity to help the Mainland Chinese and the Taiwanese to refrain from nuking each other ... and on the way home, of course, he should stop off in India and Pakistan and settle that nasty Kashmir question once and for all.

Doesn't it make you feel warm all over to have a Prime Minister so helpful
on the international scene and know that as a backup we always have lovable old Joe Clark who in his day, jammed a stick in the hornets nest by saying he'd move the Canadian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem?

They call politics loony in BC ... has anyone checked out Ottawa lately?

Surely the Liberal Party, seeing the strength of the Canadian Alliance grow daily, will replace Chretien before the next election. He is a catastrophe and the only thing that keeps him going are the polls which, to date there being no alternative, support him and the Liberals. But this man is a one man wrecking gang. What Trudeau didn't do to destroy the parliamentary system, he has finished off. He has interfered with the RCMP, seen a billion or so misspent on Human Resources and has played pork barrel politics as never before in his own riding which has no less than three criminal investigations going on right now.

The Canadian Alliance is unquestionably catching on in Ontario. Whether this is an ephemeral thing which will quickly blow away once a leader is chosen remains to be seen. I suspect not. I suspect that there are a lot of
Ontarians who are desperately looking for another place to park their
support. It can't be the Tories - Joe Clark has made sure of that. His
selection as leader was a catastrophe for that party except one must admit
that any of the alternatives would have been as bad or worse.
Let us suppose that the Canadian Alliance selects either Mr Day or Mr Long and has the "big blue machine" of the Ontario Tory Party behind them. And let us suppose that they can elect 70 seats in Ontario and retain 60 west of the Lakehead. That doesn't make them government but it does make them the largest party and would force the Liberals, if they had, say 100 seats, to see if they could make a deal with the few Tories and NDP scattered around.

It makes my scenario of a Liberal-Conservative Alliance look not so crazy
after all. For the Canadian Alliance, if it does nothing else, will force
everyone else to the left. Since the Joe Clark Tories and the NDP are
already there, the next election could see the country spilt in three - the
Alliance with all of Western Canada and much of Ontario, the Tories with
some out of Atlantic Canada, the Liberals with some support in Quebec and Atlantic Canada and the Bloc Quebecois holding down Quebec. Since no one is going to ally themselves with the Bloc that scenario is fascinating and my even more way out prediction that the Liberals and Conservatives get together in what they would call a National Coalition with Joe Clark the interim leader until the Liberals replace Chretien doesn't look so goofy - except for one thing ... Joe Clark is not likely to win a seat.

Could Paul Martin change things?

If the Alliance builds up a full head of steam I'm not so sure he can.
Politics is very much about momentum and it just could be that Canadians
from coast to coast has had enough of the Liberals despite what the polls
are saying today.

In all events, for political junkies this promises to be a wonderful year.