Conservatives can’t win by being the party of angry old men
Immutable truth No. 1: Granddad, it’s time for you to take a step back. Conservatives can’t win by being the party of angry old men who shake their fists at reporters, endearing though such cantankerousness may be.
Immutable truth No. 2: Lynton Crosbie’s niqab gambit, if indeed that was the Australian consultant’s brainchild, was an unmitigated disaster. The party can’t win without support from new Canadians and ethnic and linguistic minorities, by the hundreds of thousands.
Immutable truth No. 3: The Harper Conservatives were always more Harper than conservative. The party can’t win unless it stands for principles that are coherent and consistent, distinct from its competitors’ and popular enough to push its vote share from 30 per cent, its rock-solid base, to 40 per cent or more, assuming a continuation of Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system.
Here’s the good news, for Conservative supporters: There is a way forward that addresses each of these points, and is in fact being eased by the Liberal and New Democratic parties’ own strategic shifts. And the bad news: It requires candid self-examination and a transformation in mindset, something for which Conservatives have in the recent past shown no appetite.
Michael Den Tandt: Conservatives can’t win by being the party of angry old men | National Post
Immutable truth No. 1: Granddad, it’s time for you to take a step back. Conservatives can’t win by being the party of angry old men who shake their fists at reporters, endearing though such cantankerousness may be.
Immutable truth No. 2: Lynton Crosbie’s niqab gambit, if indeed that was the Australian consultant’s brainchild, was an unmitigated disaster. The party can’t win without support from new Canadians and ethnic and linguistic minorities, by the hundreds of thousands.
Immutable truth No. 3: The Harper Conservatives were always more Harper than conservative. The party can’t win unless it stands for principles that are coherent and consistent, distinct from its competitors’ and popular enough to push its vote share from 30 per cent, its rock-solid base, to 40 per cent or more, assuming a continuation of Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system.
Here’s the good news, for Conservative supporters: There is a way forward that addresses each of these points, and is in fact being eased by the Liberal and New Democratic parties’ own strategic shifts. And the bad news: It requires candid self-examination and a transformation in mindset, something for which Conservatives have in the recent past shown no appetite.
Michael Den Tandt: Conservatives can’t win by being the party of angry old men | National Post