The Search For An Alternative - 21st Century Canada Without Harper

Update I
paging @Hubert Humphrey Fan 1968 @CanadianTory @True Grit (Many thanks for helping me out with this)

5mAFkol.jpg


I, I always believed in futures
I hope for better in November
I try the same losing lucky numbers

It could be a cold night for a lifetime
Hey now, you can't keeping saying endlessly
My darling, how long until this affects me?


Say hello to good times
(Say hello)
Trade up for the fast ride
(We close our eyes)

We close our eyes while the nickel and dime take the streets completely

I, I always could count on futures
That things would look up, and they look up

Why is it so hard to find a balance between living decent and the cold and real?

Hey now, what is it you think you see?
My darling, now's the time to disagree


Say hello to good times
(Say hello)
Trade up for the fast ride
(We close our eyes)

We close our eyes while the nickel and dime take the streets completely

Hey now, the past is told by those who win
My darling, what matters is what hasn't been
Hey now, we're wide awake and we're thinking
My darling, believe your voice can mean something


Say hello to good times
(Say hello)
Trade up for the fast ride
(We close our eyes)
We close our eyes while the nickel and dime take the streets completely

We close our eyes while the nickel and dime take the streets completely

-Jimmy Eat World, Futures

The Tories

1998 was a crucial year for the Progressive Conservative Party. After nearly failing to finish fourth in seats and second in the popular vote in 1997, Tory hopes were down and the party was deeply in debt from their previous campaigns. Former Deputy Prime Minister Jean Charest resigned as an MP, with the provincial Quebec Liberals desperate for someone with the stature to take on Lucien Bouchard. The question was, who would want to take up such a job? Few Tories had seats that you could call safe, and many were just elected in the 1997 election. As the controversial Christian democratic populist Elsie Wayne took over as the Acting Leader, time was tight. With party funds low, there was no possibility of a leadership convention as almost every other Tory leader had been decided, instead, the leader would be decided by a “one member, one vote” system in a teleconference.

The one issue surrounding the Tories in 1998 was to merge, or not to merge. Preston Manning and his Western Reformists had been organizing a United Alternative convention, feeling that it would be the only way to defeat the Liberals. Many Tories attempted to draft a “Unite The Right” candidate, and as they went through the various options, they settled on Stephen Joseph Harper. At the beginning of his career, Harper considered himself not to be a politician, but he was hired by the then-unknown Preston Manning as his main policy advisor for the Reform Party; and given how strong the Reform Party was in 1988, he was a paper candidate. However, in 1993, he was elected. Despite being a protege of Manning, Harper was more moderate and proved to be a thorn in his side with social issues. Harper couldn’t take it and left electoral politics in 1997 to join various think tanks. However, the former Reform MP was selected to take on his former foe.

Stopping Harper was the figure that all Canadians (at least those who remembered that he existed) admired, and the Tories felt was a last-ditch effort to save the party - former Prime Minister Joe Clark. Like Charest, he was a Red Tory and was adamantly opposed to any merger or discussion with Reform. In the end, Clark and the PC establishment defeated Harper, the Mulroney-era strategist Hugh Segal, and the agrarian protectionist David Orchard (whose campaign achieved great success from Liberals buying $10 memberships to waste PC funds holding a second ballot).

Despite being out of Parliament, Joe Clark still had ambitions to become Prime Minister again...somehow. Harper, meanwhile, decided that his brief return to federal politics was a mistake, returning back to think tanks.​

LW4ixgt.png

---

Peter Mansbridge (Narration): Stockwell Day walked from the 2000 election with chocolate milk both literally and figuratively poured on him. The Alliance had only gained 6 seats compared to what Preston Manning had done in 1997; and while PC support went down, it went to Liberals worried that a minority would be disastrous.

Stockwell Day (Former Leader of the Opposition): I knew that we could win, but Chrétien abused his power in calling the election before we could possibly be ready. Throughout the election, the Liberals ran an awful smear campaign against me for my religion; and that punk Rick Mercer just fed that narrative with his “Doris” stunt.

Peter Mansbridge: Even if there was a minority government, you still would have to reach out to the Bloc, Tories, or the NDP.

Stockwell Day: That was the problem, the cancer of the right Joe Clark would rather make Jean Chrétien king than have an actual conservative in office. He’s still mad at Preston Manning for that thing with the dog in 1988.

Peter Mansbridge (Narration): The Alliance was displeased with Day, and scandals over him using Albertan taxpayer money on a libel case and hiring a private investigator left the party struggling for second in opinion polls. Day then expelled MPs who spoke out against his leadership and left to form their own Democratic Representative Caucus.

Deborah Gray (Former Acting Leader of the Opposition): I knew that if the Alliance won, I would become one of the most powerful people in Canada - but I stuck to my principles. Misterbrainiola and I did the same back in 1987 when we started the Reform Party.

Joe Clark (Former Prime Minister): I have, uh, disagreed with Deborah and Chuck in the past, but we both knew that Stockwell Day wanted American-style conservatism.

Peter Mansbridge: The Tories moved ahead in the polls, and Jean Chrétien even viewed Joe Clark as the actual Leader of the Opposition. He too faced issues from his Finance Minister, Paul Martin. This fighting dated back to the battles between Pierre Trudeau and John Turner. Martin had attempted to remove Chrétien from office before, in 2000, but Chrétien called a snap election to stop him.

Paul Martin (Former Minister of Finance): Chrétien was a rather difficult man to work with, so when he fired me, I had almost a sense of relief (laughs). I had no idea what he would do later that year.
 
This is marvellous.

Is it sad that I knew exactly what the link about Clark not being an MP would link to? :p
 
Update II

Preston Manning had built the populist Western movement from a fringe party to the opposition. He was one of the most important figures in Canadian political history. Then, he threw it all away. In a desperate bid to defeat the Liberal Party, he renamed Reform to the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party (or C-CRAP as it was called before Reform and Conservative were switched around in the name) to win over Tory support. He opened leadership elections but lost to the young and handsome Alberta cabinet minister Stockwell Day. Day then embarrassed conservatism by losing to the Grits in a landslide. Manning left electoral politics in a huff.

The resulting by-election was an easy Alliance win; right? Not at all. The party selected as their candidate a young lawyer and conservative commentator. His name just happened to be Ezra Levant. His rival was another lawyer. That lawyer was named Jim Prentice, a popular Red Tory with a history in the party. Levant started out with a twenty-two point lead. Then, he said Manning “ruined conservatism” and that “only I can fix it.” Prentice brought up his successful libel case against Senator Ron Ghitter and got national Tories to campaign for him. Doug Christie started campaigning for Levant, Prentice brought up that Levant is a support of Quebec independence (and Albertan independence if the Liberals won re-election), and Levant compared himself to Martin Luther King. Prentice than won a record victory for the Tories, bringing himself to the front of Canadian politics.

Slrff0p.png


---

Deja Vu? Chrétien Calls Snap Election

Just as he did just over two years ago, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has walked across Sussex Drive yesterday and up the long driveway of Rideau Hall to visit Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and call a federal election for Mar. 3rd -- the fourth in nine years.

Chrétien called a press conference, where he said that “This government has not been given a chance to fulfill our manifesto that we presented to the voters.”, mentioning the Kyoto Protocol as something he hopes to push for with a renewed mandate. The Prime Minister has expressed his hope to keep Parliamentary terms short (like New Zealand, where terms are just three years) to give voters more of an opportunity to decide their representatives.

The timing of the election has been suspicious to some, with Paul Martin’s faction fighting over the party, Stockwell Day’s leadership at a crisis, Jack Layton having just being elected leader of the NDP in January, and Chrétien facing personal scandals. Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, former Prime Minister Joe Clark, said: “The Prime Minister is calling the election for reasons of vanity, he's doing it for reasons of party advantage.”

Former Turner cabinet minister and personal friend of Martin Jean Lapierre (running in Outremont against Minister of Justice Martin Cauchon) has launched “Growth”, with the support of Joe Volpe, Reg Alcock, and Jim Peterson along with “large numbers of Liberal PCCs.” Their plan is to force Paul Martin as Prime Minister through a third party - although Martin himself is retiring and has not endorsed any party.

Polls put the Chrétien Liberals well ahead of any of their rivals, but it’s unclear if that lead will hold, or if it could blow up on his face like John Turner in 1984. Regardless, many Canadians feel that there is a lack of choice other than the Grits, who have won the past three federal elections with majority governments.
 
Last edited:
Christian Heritage supermajority, obviously.

Realistically the Grits get another, stronger mandate, but I feel like those last few lines in the update are setting up something unexpected.
 
Ahem, so obviously you can all believe my prediction as spot on. I still have that book somewhere. I really truly miss that era of Canadian political blogs and podcasts before social media and broader blog decline trends wiped most of them out.

I’ll call Liberal Minority. Heh. Fun timeline so far!
 
Top