The Written Word
for May 6, 2001

Why can’t the so-called "right" unite across Canada and present a viable alternative to the Liberals?

This is a complex question.

One of the problems is that the Liberals have picked up most of the expired left wing support in the country that used to belong to the NDP. This has broadened their base substantially. And in doing this, the Liberals have added to a party that to many Canadians is seen as a "right-of-center" party. There are Liberals who are that simply because that’s where their families have always been.

But still, in 1984 and again in 1988 the Tories won massive majorities with enormous support in the western provinces. Given that Brian Mulroney pissed everybody off so much that the Tories were reduced, in 1993, to two measly seats surely that country wide support cannot have gone forever?

Well, in politics where a week can be an eternity, there is no "forever" but in this case there damn near is. For the Tories lost in Western Canada, in 1993, for different reasons than they lost elsewhere.

I suppose, upon reflection, that’s not entirely accurate because the reason they lost west of the Lakehead was partly the reason they lost in the western half of the country but only partly.

The Tories in Western Canada had been, since the days of John Diefenbaker, the party of protest. Protest against the East …protest against Bay Street … protest against appeasing Quebec. In 1986 Brian Mulroney convened a conference of Premiers at Meech Lake and there began the rift in the Tory Party that remains to this day and will not soon go away.
At first it seemed OK. People didn’t want to get into arcane constitutional matters and, after all, all the premiers agreed – including, of course, the four western ones. But Mulroney made a fatal mistake – he gave the provinces three years to pass the Accord (it required unanimous support.) This was too long. What with changes in government and a growing public interest, some provinces weren’t too quick off the mark. One that was, Newfoundland, changed it’s mind when the Tories lost the government to Liberal Clyde Wells. By June of 1990 there were two provinces not on side and the deal died.

By this time considerable hostility to the agreement had been generated in the western provinces, especially Alberta and British Columbia. Then when Brian Mulroney did it again with the Charlottetown Agreement of 1992 – and agreed that it would be subject to a referendum – the forces against what Mulroney called "Meech Plus! Plus! Plus! were gaining strength. By the time of the vote on October 26^th Western Canada was firmly in the "No" camp, getting more so as one went west culminating in a rejection by nearly 70% in British Columbia.

Here’s the rub. The Meech Lake/Charlottetown divisions in fact spawned the Reform Party and divided conservative voters who, in most of Western Canada deserted the Progressive Conservative Party largely on this issue.

This had a divisive effect in other parts of the country as well. It is easily forgotten that Nova Scotia voted against Charlottetown and in fact were the ones that tubed the deal. But in the rest of Canada the Tories were able to cling to life because the discontent didn’t run as deep.

Now the Conservative party survives, barely, east of the Lakehead and is dead in the western part of the country while the reverse is true for the Alliance. And it is this underlying philosophical cleavage that keeps the Tories and the Alliance from marrying. The Progressive Conservative Party is the party of "distinct society" for Quebec and all that logically follows from that and the Alliance believes in ten juridically equal provinces with no special deals for any.

Unless and until that gap can be bridged the Liberals, with toeholds on both the left and right of the spectrum and not needing votes in Western Canada will continue to dominate the national politics of the country.