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Longer-term political harakiri
Dec. 4th, 2008 04:46 pmI have to ask just what the Conservative Party thinks it is doing, strategically.
For quite a long time, they have effectively depended on the soft Quebec nationalist vote to provide the swing votes which would provide a majority. This was not only the explicit hope of the party going into the last election (which they then blew by making stupid and unnecessary pronouncements); it was the basic electoral strategy going back to Clark (remember "community of communities"?) for the old PCs, based on having a less tightly centralised view of federalism than the Liberals. It worked for a while for Mulroney, before Meech Lake blew it apart.
As far as I can tell, they've just kissed that strategic plank goodbye for a generation or so.
In addition, they've alienated a chunk of voters who gave them swing ridings in Ontario, who usually look for non-ideological, managerial competence. After the little display of partisanship in the recent economic update, those votes are gone at least as long as Harper is leader. And any even faintly Keynesean literate-in-economics types will have been disappointed by the tone of the economic update("Hey, we have a major recession! Time to emphasize restraint!").
(I know: the simplest reason -- that this is not about the party but about Harper's job -- is probably the correct one.)
For quite a long time, they have effectively depended on the soft Quebec nationalist vote to provide the swing votes which would provide a majority. This was not only the explicit hope of the party going into the last election (which they then blew by making stupid and unnecessary pronouncements); it was the basic electoral strategy going back to Clark (remember "community of communities"?) for the old PCs, based on having a less tightly centralised view of federalism than the Liberals. It worked for a while for Mulroney, before Meech Lake blew it apart.
As far as I can tell, they've just kissed that strategic plank goodbye for a generation or so.
In addition, they've alienated a chunk of voters who gave them swing ridings in Ontario, who usually look for non-ideological, managerial competence. After the little display of partisanship in the recent economic update, those votes are gone at least as long as Harper is leader. And any even faintly Keynesean literate-in-economics types will have been disappointed by the tone of the economic update("Hey, we have a major recession! Time to emphasize restraint!").
(I know: the simplest reason -- that this is not about the party but about Harper's job -- is probably the correct one.)
