CKNW Editorial
for July 5, 2001

There is another aspect to this unity of the right movement that isn’t getting much play.

It’s generally assumed that the Tories and the Alliance represent the right hand part of the political spectrum and that therefore their union would be very powerful indeed. I beg to disagree.

British Columbia has, and always has had, small "c" conservatives who for the most part supported the Progressive Conservative Party until 1993. What we don’t remember is that from 1972 on the Tories were the majority federal party in BC having taken over in that year from the Liberals who had held sway for decades. Why was the Tory Party numero uno here for 20 years? Did we suddenly become a small "c" party overnight?

The answer is clearly no. What happened is that the province tired of the Liberals and this was due to Pierre Trudeau and the policies he espoused. Part of the problem was bilingualism and biculturism. While BC along with most of the rest of the country celebrated our centenary in 1967 by 1972 it became obvious that our view of the nation and that of the Trudeau Liberals did not coincide. The Tory party became, not to put too fine a point on it, the party of protest. As we saw it, the PCs represented opposition to Trudeau and his gang and that’s what we wanted. Each year our annoyance – dare I say anger – increased and year by year the Tory vote increased until 1984 when we contributed to the Mulroney landslide in a big way.

In short, the people of British Columbia didn’t suddenly become Tory blue – they just got thoroughly pissed off at the Liberal Party and what it stood for.

(I should note here that from 1957 until 1962 the Diefenbaker Tories held sway in BC but they were scarcely Tories of the old school. I bypass the Joe Clark government as being a political will-o-the-wisp.)

In 1984 we thought that our time of influence on the national scene had arrived. We were to be bitterly disappointed and that disappointment manifested itself in opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, which would have perpetuated power in central Canada, and the Charlottetown Accord which was, as Mulroney said, Meech plus! plus! plus! In 1992 we rejected the Brian Mulroney/Joe Clark Charlottetown deal by nearly 70%. In 1993, not for left-right reasons at all, but because we saw the Tories as having betrayed us, we threw out the lot of them including the country’s only BC born Prime Minister. This is worth remembering because that former Tory power was transferred, in 1993, to the Reform Party, thence to the Alliance. And that Tory power was not based on any right wing agenda but, for a major part at any rate, on our vision of Canada which so differed from that of the Liberals. The entire vote and then some that went to the Tories for that 20 years was given to Mr Manning then Stockwell Day. Fast forward to now.

There are, of course, loads of right-wingers in the Alliance. But not enough to elect many, if any, MPs. The support for the Alliance comes from very middle of the road British Columbians who loathe the Liberals as the party that cares not a fig for them.

If I am right, why would British Columbians want to see the Alliance and the Tories unite?

There is one reason, of course. Most British Columbians would like to see the back of the Liberals. We have five Liberal lickspittles who wouldn’t even support a private members bill to help BC leaky condo owners while the Liberal government dumps tax dollars to the pockets of Montreal condo owners with similar problems. Why wouldn’t our own MPs support us? Simple. The party whips told them not to and to BC Liberals the party whip always comes before their province.

The question becomes an interesting one when we consider the vision the Clark Tories have of Canada and that held by, I daresay, a great majority of British Columbians. The Progressive Conservative Party hasn’t changed one iota. They are Meechkins who would do Charlottetown all over again if they had the chance. To them, bribing Quebec is second nature.

So now what happens if the so-called "right" unites? Do we see a new party that supports the Tory view of the country or that enunciated by the Alliance? I speak only for myself but I haven’t the slightest interest in a right wing party per se. I am, however, interested in a grassroots party that is democratic in nature and outlook and which sees all provinces as juridically equal.

What will likely happen is a union of the two parties with the new party being silent on the national vision bit except to put some mindless platitudes in their manifesto.

If they do, I think the new party is dead at birth. If we are to have Joe Clarkism we might just as well have Paul Martinism, which would bring with it the possibility of some political pay-offs in our part of the country for a change.

No … I think the Alliance has to do some deep thinking before it makes its next move … for it may well find that its efforts will produce a right wing party but at the same time one which isn’t all that appealing to the British Columbia voter.