The Groundhog Day massacre casts a shadow over Conservatives tilting hard to the right
Justin Trudeau, now having beaten down three Conservative leaders, must be gleefully delaying any retirement plans and trying to figure out how to force an election within the next year.
But perhaps there’s a bright lining to the dark clouds over the Conservatives.
The need to become more "conservative" may have been the blade pushing O’Toole off the plank, but it’s the wrong answer if the goal is to win the election in the urban Ontario battlegrounds.
And keep in mind that whoever inherits the leadership "prize" won’t have the clout that comes from leading a party poised to take power. He or she will preside over a caucus of cabinet wannabes who are resigned to be stuck as opposition critics, which makes hard discipline over the fringe elements difficult to enforce.
If the party can shake loose from social conservative influences; preach fiscal discipline against a government engaged in runaway spending; focus policies on growing business in contrast with Liberals preoccupied with growing government; and front it all with a credible face capable of stringing nouns and verbs into straight-talking sentences, well, it could win, particularly if expiry-dated Trudeau runs again.
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Justin Trudeau, now having beaten down three Conservative leaders, must be gleefully delaying any retirement plans and trying to figure out how to force an election within the next year.
But perhaps there’s a bright lining to the dark clouds over the Conservatives.
The need to become more "conservative" may have been the blade pushing O’Toole off the plank, but it’s the wrong answer if the goal is to win the election in the urban Ontario battlegrounds.
And keep in mind that whoever inherits the leadership "prize" won’t have the clout that comes from leading a party poised to take power. He or she will preside over a caucus of cabinet wannabes who are resigned to be stuck as opposition critics, which makes hard discipline over the fringe elements difficult to enforce.
If the party can shake loose from social conservative influences; preach fiscal discipline against a government engaged in runaway spending; focus policies on growing business in contrast with Liberals preoccupied with growing government; and front it all with a credible face capable of stringing nouns and verbs into straight-talking sentences, well, it could win, particularly if expiry-dated Trudeau runs again.
Don Martin: The Groundhog Day massacre casts a shadow over Conservatives tilting hard to the right
Born: August 24, 2020. Died: February 2, 2022. Erin O’Toole’s 526-day intra-pandemic Conservative leadership has been euthanized, taken down by a mercifully quick and decisive 75-vote backstabbing from his own MPs, Don Martin writes in his latest column for CTVNews.ca.
