The Conservatives, as you may know, have had a rough time in office. They had many different problems, Afghan detainees, long form census, G20, you name it. Even now they’ve continued with their trail of disaster, the long gun registry, their extremely expensive temporary meeting rooms, the failed UN Security Council seat bid. They plough forward, leaving disaster in their wake, and yet the electorate takes no notice.
Polls look like they did ages ago. Sure there’s a bit of shifting, but not one of these issues has caused any kind of major shift. Even heavily reported issues like the Afghan detainee crisis, with Canada being accused of war crimes, or the mandatory long form census cancellation, prompting the resignation of the head of Statistics Canada and outcry from organizations across the country failed to significantly shake Conservative support.
What have the Liberals done amongst these opportunities handed to them to show the Canadian public how they could be a better choice to lead the country? They went on a bus tour. This summer, Harper generated more media coverage by disappearing for a while, than Ignatieff could manage with all his scheduled Liberal Express stops and events. When the Liberals could have been demonstrating their unity and focus, they were disobeying Whipped votes (votes where the MPs are required to vote along party lines instead of in accordance to their own views). They were bringing down their own motions, publicly refusing to support Private Members Bills proposed by members of their own party, and generally making themselves look incompetent. They can’t even manage to handle the Conservatives smear campaign on Ignatieff.
I really wanted to rant at the Conservatives. I’m appalled by the way they’ve ignored facts, advice and legality in their relentless pursuit of their extremely right wing ideology and politics which are designed to divide the country. However, I feel that the appalling lack of leadership in the Liberal party is a greater threat to anyone who doesn’t agree with the Conservative ideology. How can we have faith in the Leader of the Official Opposition, the person who’s supposed to be the balance for the Prime Minister in a minority government, to take command when he can’t even manage to handle his own MPs?
Ignatieff has had many opportunities to prove how he could shine as a leader. Instead, he lets Harper blame him for the loss of the UN Security Council vote. The fact that the political divisions and comments made by Ignatieff only came to this supposed international attention because Harper made them a spotlight issue. If the Liberals even bothered to point this out, it wasn’t done very well, since all the media was reporting was Harper’s accusations.
In short, the Liberal Party is not showing up as a credible alternative to the Conservatives. I wish that I could throw my wholehearted support behind their party, but I find that I can’t. I would vote for them, since they seem to be the best alternative, but lately it seems like picking the best of a bunch of bad options. When there isn’t a leader or party that inspires any confidence, I despair for the future of Canadian politics.
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