Margaret Atwood: Preston Manning, Man of the Future
Wait a minute, you may say. Isn’t Preston Manning a man of the past? Wasn’t he a man of the future a long time ago, in the days of the Reform/Canadian Alliance parties? Back before Stephen Harper took over and United the Right, over some old-Tory Red-Tory dead bodies?
But who’s saying “Man of the Future”? Margaret Atwood! Aren’t I supposed to be some far-left red-eyed wing-nut witch, according to the United Far-Right’s peanut gallery?
In point of fact, I’m a swing voter, one of those shifty people who’d rather look in the box than just read the label. So I voted for Dief back in the day because he had a vision of Canada, and was annoyed when he betrayed it by cancelling the Avro Arrow. And I joined the old Progressive Conservatives in 2003 so I could vote in the leadership election for David Orchard, an organic farmer who understood green issues, as did Brian Mulroney, up to a point.
The old PCs included environmentalists like former Ontario premier William Davis. Mr. Manning was right when he said that core “conservative” values include “conservation.” For instance, Ducks Unlimited is hardly Marxist, though it does want to protect clean water for everyone: if a duck can’t drink it without hazard, neither should you. Mr. Harper, on the contrary, has removed federal protection for navigation on all but 159 of Canada’s waterways, which means that navigation obstructions, such as pipelines, dams, and mine tailings, can be placed across 98 per cent of them — effectively removing environmental protection as well. Help yourselves, polluters.
The old PCs of the 70s and 80s were also strong nationalists rather than continentalists, valued our history, and understood the issue of Canadian culture better than anyone else at that time. Marcel Masse, who served under Brian Mulroney, was the best minister we culture folks ever encountered. When Joe Clark headed External Affairs, also under Mulroney, he was extremely helpful on foreign-country writer-persecution issues PEN Canada was involved in.
But those policies have been discarded by the present Conservative party; those individuals have been scorned or their counsel ignored, those core values derided.
Back to Preston Manning. Whatever you may have thought of Mr. Manning in his Reform/Alliance days, no one has ever accused him of being a cynic who couldn’t care less about what ordinary people say. He stresses the value of honesty, especially in fiscal matters, and nobody brays with disbelieving laughter when he says the word “honesty.”
But Man of the Future? Is that such a hard case to make? Let me try.
There’s a Christian “environmental stewardship” organization called A Rocha; its Canadian branch, located in Vancouver, is headed by Leah and Markku Kostamo, whose dedication shines from every pore. Graeme Gibson and I did a fundraiser for it in 2014. Why? Because faith-imbued environmentalism has at least a chance of working: you save what you love. And because the “stewardship” movement within the Christian church – recently given a big boost by the Pope – says, in essence, that you can’t love your fellow man unless you also love that which sustains him in life, our planet’s air/water/earth ecosystem.
For Preston Manning, one of the solutions is economic. “For every economic activity there are negative environmental consequences,” he said. “We should determine what those are, and put the cost to mitigate or avoid them into the price of the product.” Such statements have aroused the wrath of some oil-worshipping commentators, who have accused Mr. Manning of going over to the Dark Side.
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Margaret Atwood: Preston Manning, Man of the Future | National Post
Wait a minute, you may say. Isn’t Preston Manning a man of the past? Wasn’t he a man of the future a long time ago, in the days of the Reform/Canadian Alliance parties? Back before Stephen Harper took over and United the Right, over some old-Tory Red-Tory dead bodies?
But who’s saying “Man of the Future”? Margaret Atwood! Aren’t I supposed to be some far-left red-eyed wing-nut witch, according to the United Far-Right’s peanut gallery?
In point of fact, I’m a swing voter, one of those shifty people who’d rather look in the box than just read the label. So I voted for Dief back in the day because he had a vision of Canada, and was annoyed when he betrayed it by cancelling the Avro Arrow. And I joined the old Progressive Conservatives in 2003 so I could vote in the leadership election for David Orchard, an organic farmer who understood green issues, as did Brian Mulroney, up to a point.
The old PCs included environmentalists like former Ontario premier William Davis. Mr. Manning was right when he said that core “conservative” values include “conservation.” For instance, Ducks Unlimited is hardly Marxist, though it does want to protect clean water for everyone: if a duck can’t drink it without hazard, neither should you. Mr. Harper, on the contrary, has removed federal protection for navigation on all but 159 of Canada’s waterways, which means that navigation obstructions, such as pipelines, dams, and mine tailings, can be placed across 98 per cent of them — effectively removing environmental protection as well. Help yourselves, polluters.
The old PCs of the 70s and 80s were also strong nationalists rather than continentalists, valued our history, and understood the issue of Canadian culture better than anyone else at that time. Marcel Masse, who served under Brian Mulroney, was the best minister we culture folks ever encountered. When Joe Clark headed External Affairs, also under Mulroney, he was extremely helpful on foreign-country writer-persecution issues PEN Canada was involved in.
But those policies have been discarded by the present Conservative party; those individuals have been scorned or their counsel ignored, those core values derided.
Back to Preston Manning. Whatever you may have thought of Mr. Manning in his Reform/Alliance days, no one has ever accused him of being a cynic who couldn’t care less about what ordinary people say. He stresses the value of honesty, especially in fiscal matters, and nobody brays with disbelieving laughter when he says the word “honesty.”
But Man of the Future? Is that such a hard case to make? Let me try.
There’s a Christian “environmental stewardship” organization called A Rocha; its Canadian branch, located in Vancouver, is headed by Leah and Markku Kostamo, whose dedication shines from every pore. Graeme Gibson and I did a fundraiser for it in 2014. Why? Because faith-imbued environmentalism has at least a chance of working: you save what you love. And because the “stewardship” movement within the Christian church – recently given a big boost by the Pope – says, in essence, that you can’t love your fellow man unless you also love that which sustains him in life, our planet’s air/water/earth ecosystem.
For Preston Manning, one of the solutions is economic. “For every economic activity there are negative environmental consequences,” he said. “We should determine what those are, and put the cost to mitigate or avoid them into the price of the product.” Such statements have aroused the wrath of some oil-worshipping commentators, who have accused Mr. Manning of going over to the Dark Side.
more
Margaret Atwood: Preston Manning, Man of the Future | National Post
