Cerberus has an excellent article defending the Liberals and attacking the Conservatives in these final days before E-Day.That being said I disagree with him completely when he says the only choice is between these two parties. I began to leave him a comment but it was getting long, then longer so I thought I would post it here and expand on it.
To say that the Martin Team, NOT the LIberal party, the Martin Team deserve to run this country well as the saying goes; they had their chance and they blew it.
With a minority government handed to them last election they were expected to make a go of it. And even knowing that they faced a disgruntled, ticked off Official opposition, they had to make a go of it. And they blew it. They remained arrogant, dismissive, ruling as they had for the last 12 years, as if they were the Natural Ruling Party. As if they had a majority. This arrogance was the same as that of their predecessor the ever hated Jean Chretien, the guy they fought to replace cause he was old news.
The whole Martin for Leader campaign was the pre-election campaign. And for two years before the 2004 election all these internal shenanigans reflected badly on the Liberal party. They showed a party indifferent to the needs of Canadians, a party more concerned with winning, and with its own internal needs.
After having been in the back rooms, then spending two years abandoning Chretien as they plotted their coup, Team Martin swept through the party purging enemies, and NOT making friends. In a very public way. There was no unification under Team Martin. There was a glorious purge, sweeping away all the Chretienites, in order to claim to be a whole new Liberal Party.
When they got to 24 Sussex they found out that Chretien still had a trick up his sleeve, he left them the ticking time bomb of Adscam. That is why no one can believe Team Martin. Even if Martin says he didn't know about Adscam and even though Gomery exonerated him that claim doesn't sit well with Canadians.
Because we see him as not wanting to know, too busy plotting to overthrow the boss. In effect we are saying he didn't do his job when he was Finance Minister and later when he dropped all his caucus affiliations to run his dump Chretien campaign.
So really if the Liberals loose this one it will be because Team Martin lost it for them three years ago as they brought out the long knives for Chretien. So intent on dumping him, they were solely focused on gaining power, now they appear as only focused on holding onto power. Which is so obvious to everyone in the Country that the vote will certainly go against them. It will go to the BQ, the Conservatives and the NDP. It will be an anybody but Team Martin/Scott Reid/John Duffy/etc. etc.
His own isolation from the party, from a real unified Liberal team, is so obvious that this election has shown him haggard, tired, overworked, short on supporters, short on support, short of new things to say. Team Martin has run this campaign, as they ran the ran the House, for the past eighteen months. They have been arrogant, elitist, out of touch with their base, and unwilling to be open to input from those outside of their small clique.
They are asking for us to vote for Paul Martin Liberal Leadership Candidate.
They have run both the 2004 and this election as if it were a Liberal Party Leadership race. A race they won at the expense of alienating the left of the party, the centre of the party and the right of the party. All that was left was incumbents, back benchers and Team Martin. Now that team is in real trouble where is Martin.
He has failed to campaign for his good pals Anne McLellan in Edmonton and Ralph Goodale in Saskatchewan. Loyal pals, who have taken it on the chin for Team Martin have been deserted by Paul and his crew. Why because there is no Team in I, Me, Paul Martin. This is Pauls war. Just like it was Pauls war against Jean. This is Paul's war against Stephen. This is Pauls election. This isn't about voting for a government its about voting just like in high school, for class president. In this case for Prime Minister.Team Martin was all about making Paul Martin Prime Minister, as if the position
was akin to the American Presidency. It was never about building the Liberal party. Sheila Copps and Warren Kinsella, are both right on this point. Team Martin was all about inheriting the mantel of governance, and placing the laurel wreath on Martins head. Hail Caesar.This whole election has been not about Liberals versus Conservatives versus the NDP versus the Bloc. It has been about Paul Martin's Vision of Canada. Not the Liberal Party or its vision or representation of Canada. Of a party that is Canadian and conducts Canadian values by its cross country base a base that exists even in Tory blue Alberta. A base that will be gone after Monday night.
No this has always been about Paul. Paul versus Harper. Paul versus Layton. Paul versus Duceppe. The only political leader Paul has not been against is Jim Harris of the Green Party.
In the debates it was never about policy, platform, or party position. The Liberal Party was not in the debates. It watched Paul Martin perform in its name, and sat on the sidelines.
Team Martin has made this election about Paul and Stephen and Jack and Giles. Martin has personalized it. Ironically for all his exhortations of I Am Canada, Martins campaign has been the most American style campaign we have seen in years. And it hasn't worked.
The polls don't lie. They may not show the winner but they sure do show the loser and that loser is Paul Martin. Under his and Team Martins campaign the Liberal Party numbers have dropped and his personal appeal has declined so far that Jack Layton is meeting him on the way up. But Paul true to form will still be singing I Did My Way until the night the fat lady sings.
The choice Canadians face this election is between the right and the left. That leaves out Team Martin. They do not represent the Liberal Party, the traditional centre of Canadian politics. By personalizing it they have polarized the vote.
This Monday the Choice is clear it is a choice one of four PARTIES, The BQ, The Conservatives, The Greens or The NDP. There is no Liberal party in this election, certainly not one fit to govern as a government. There are four parties in this election running for government and opposition and one guy running for PM.
In English Canada if you are in the least progressive, centrist or to the left of centre, socially aware, concerned about fairness and social justice, and opposed to the Conservatives you have only one choice this election that is the NDP.
On Monday night it will not be a Liberal party loss it will be Paul Martin's loss, and he will go quietly into that good night. Because it has never been about government, good governance, or the Liberal Party. It has always been about Paul Martin Prime Minister. We are not voting out a government we are voting out a man so arrogant that he thought this election was all about being PM.
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