A rchive Date
[ 05-04-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/waugh.html
Harper is the Alliance's last hope
By NEIL WAUGH - Edmonton Sun
April 5, 2002
At least one eastern media mischief maker - and I'm sure there will be more - has tried to draw some deep and sinister implications about Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's absence from the Canadian Alliance conference here this week.
If the truth be told, Klein's links to the Alliance are pretty tenuous at best. Sure, Klein sketched out the road map in a keynote address for the unite-the-right movement back when it was called the United Alternative.
It was a speech that was actually penned by his long-time political adviser Rod Love when he hitched his pony to Stockwell Day's wagon.
Klein also gave Day a couple of public pats on the back when he launched his ill-fated CA leadership bid. But other than that, the Canadian Alliance has pretty well been a Ralph-Free Zone.
Now, as the CA attempts to pick up the pieces from what has to have been the most disastrous 18 months in Canadian political history, they're on their own.
And the convention comes down to two fundamental issues. One is Stephen. And the other is Harper.
The question is whether the new Canadian Alliance leader, by the time he delivers his wrap-up address tomorrow afternoon, will become at least a blip on the national radar screen again.
Only 90,000 CA members bothered to cast ballots in a race that saw Harper take out Day by a healthy margin. For a political party that presents itself as the voice of the great oppressed conservative majority in this country, and boasts of its large grassroots support, the turnout was a borderline fiasco. It hardly takes fewer votes to pick a new pope.
And it indicates just how the country has switched off following Day's blunder-filled 2000 election campaign and the hilarious backstabbing and caucus defections that followed.
This is what Harper is faced with going in. And the last thing he needs is to get hamstrung by his delegates with a huge manual of rigid policies that, as Day found, pretty well inhibit his ability to lead with any flexibility.
But this is precisely what he will be faced with after party members chew through 26 pages of resolutions that don't include the internal constitutional eye-glazers that appears to consume much of the party's interest and energy. Because out in the real world nobody really cares.
It's that magic, mercurial thing call leadership that matters. The royal political jelly that Ralph Klein and Jean Chretien have.
Sadly, Stephen Harper has a lot of catching up to do on that front. Somehow, over the next couple of days, he has to transform himself from his image as a slightly sinister figure lurking behind former Reform leader Preston Manning's throne - and the country's leading policy wonk - into someone that Canadians feel good enough about to entrust with their tax dollars.
It's going to be a tough battle. Last time out the Canadian Alliance chose style over substance. Now, somehow Harper has to grow beyond the exclusive circle of friends that the CA has become.
In his acceptance speech Harper hammered the "visionless agenda of the Chretien Liberals."
If only the CA had a few fewer visions of its own.
Because, believe it or not, all the county's ills aren't going to be solved by a few angry old men, anti-abortionists and 22-year-old neo-cons with moussed hair and silly suits. Which is presently the image the party presents to the rest of the country.
In his speech, Harper talked about the CA's principles of "free enterprise, fiscal responsibility, direct democracy, limited government and our traditional freedoms and institutions."
That's a good start.
He also outlined what he calls the CA's "founding vision."
"This country needs a party dedicated not to worshipping or taking advantage of the system," he said. "Neither to disrupting nor destroying it, but to reforming the system to better serve the interests of ordinary, hard-working, common-sense Canadians."
But whether Harper can connect with Don Cherry's Canada is a difficult question. One thing is certain. Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark clearly can't.
It's Harper's job to come out of this convention as a leader with his feet firmly planted on the national stage. Either that or the Canadian Alliance is as good as dead.
Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@edm.sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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