Three Liberal Challenges, Then Seize The

12 The field: Justin Trudeau, Joyce Murray, Karen McCrimmon, Martha Hall Findlay, Deborah Coyne and Martin Cauchon, at the last leadership debate in Montreal on March 23. By then, the only question remaining was who would finish second to Trudeau. Photo: Adam Scotti. he formation of Liberal Party policy heading towards the next Three Liberal T election will be shaped by three challenges, which are essentially strategic in nature. This is not to suggest Challenges, then that normal policy development will be hijacked by a stand-alone strategic exercise. As always, a sense of what is Seize the Day best for the country, married with the party’s values, will obtain. There may be John Duffy an accent placed upon new and more democratic means of canvassing party opinion. Within that, however, meeting The Liberal Party can count on the record of seven years the strategic imperatives outlined below will be the critical challenge in shaping of Conservative government to help differentiate it as a the Liberal offering. governing alternative. But it also has to formulate rem- As with any opposition party, the first edies, sell them to an electorate hungry for change over and most compelling need is to build a clear, coherent and resonant critique of the heads of a balky policy elite and outperform the other the government’s policy and to create choices. It has the advantages of a policy history that an alternative that proposes to remedy the ills pointed out in that critique. squares with current trends in public sentiment and a A second, key challenge will be reconcil- leader who has the appeal of the late Jack Layton. An ex- ing the wide gap between the elite con- sensus and broader electoral opinion. citing, Layton-like figure atop the durable Liberal brand Third, Liberals will require clear differ- should be a formidable combination. entiation with the New Democrats. Policy 13 Perhaps the most interesting part of Prime Minister Harper’s show- is decreasingly sustainable as the years these challenges is that the better the don’t-tell style has several in power accumulate. The governing re- Liberals do at meeting the first, the cord has inevitably come to define Mr. harder it will prove to meet the subse- advantages. One of them is Harper’s party as no campaign narrative quent two. blurring the government’s can. Mounting an intellectually coherent complexion. This has enabled The outlines of the Harper government and electorally resonant alternative vi- the government to define are now clear enough. It favours a very sion to the Harper Conservatives comes itself by whatever offering it limited role for government in the life first. Framing a resonant critique of may select to suit the political of the country, and a shrunken role for the government was a difficult chal- moment. Ottawa in the federation. After seven lenge, for the Liberals in particular, over years of tax cuts, disengagement from the past several years. (The author’s health care, retreat from environmental thoughts on the subject were detailed obligations, reduction of old-age secu- in Policy Options, February, 2012.). But, rity liability, de minimus involvement after almost a decade of Conservative Conservatives adjusted their image to- in broadcast policy, and fending off a rule, this has become a relatively man- ward ever-greater moderation, deflect- countrywide dialogue on energy strate- ageable task. It is worth revisiting the ing debate over their basic approach to gies, the debate as to the nature of this history of the Harper Conservatives’ po- governing with fuzzy blue pullovers, government is pretty much over. Move- litical offering to see where the govern- transit-user tax breaks and fitness tax ment conservatives – many of them in ment now stands, and what an alterna- credits. Pandas and Mrs. Harper may the press – may continue to gnash their tive might look like. well figure in 2015. Beyond the cosmet- teeth over how “centrist” this govern- Prime Minister Harper’s show-don’t- ics, substantive election-time offerings ment has become. This debate obscures tell style has several advantages. One have tended to be innocuous. the government’s identity amongst the of them is blurring the government’s elite audience. Canadians, however, complexion. This has enabled the gov- he longer one governs, howev- are telling one surveyor after another ernment to define itself by whatever er, the harder this manoeuver that regardless of the labels applied by offering it may select to suit the po- T becomes. Inviting the elector- pundits, they understand well enough litical moment. In the campaigns of ate to pay no attention to the rather where the Harper administration is 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2011, the Harper conservative man behind the curtain coming from. INVESTING IN CANADA’S FUTURE Pratt & Whitney Canada is 85 years old and moving faster than ever. What began as a team of 10 has grown to nearly 10,000. What began as a repair and overhaul facility grew into a global leader. Today, as a leading R&D investor in Canadian aerospace, we help power Canada’s economy from coast to coast. Our communities depend on innovation to lead the way. For that, you can depend on P&WC. WWW.PWC.CA 14 Health care is also marching up the electorate’s priority list. in added value. They’ve decimated the The phenomenon of an aging society is no longer just on the manufacturing sector because of the high dollar. They don’t care, because radar; it is now winging in onto the flight deck. they look north and they see lots more pristine territory that they can rip up. And, of course, that’s why they’re so frantic about both the environmental This classical federalist role (as govern- living? Attempts to avoid the debate movement and First Nations’ rights, ment supporters term it; a certain vener- behind a veil of classical federalist dis- because those are the barriers to their able Liberal adviser prefers “deconstruc- engagement or other diversions invite economic vision.” (Dancing the World tionist”) commands the support of the a competing response. And it is reason- into Being: A Conversation with Idle No standard 30 percent CPC voting base, able to expect that the first steps to- More’s Leanne Simpson”. YES Magazine, centered in the prairies and rural Eng- wards dealing with this new reality will Mar. 2013.) lish Canada. It can also, depending on come from opposition parties. The Lib- This is not just fringe, left-wing dis- the alternatives, carry with it a degree of erals, with their estimable track record course. Those with long memories will assent in some parts of Quebec. At the in previous social-policy build-outs, recall this kind of debate occupying same time, however, the Harper Con- could do well by pivoting off Conserva- the mainstream through the 1960s and servative record of deconstructionist tive standoffishness towards health care 1970s, and into the 1980s, until the government carries with it a limitation: and other social policies, and making a advent of the Mulroney government. vulnerability to the charge of neglect positive offering. In that time, the economic nationalist when demand builds for government The openings in economic and health critique of the Canadian economy as re- policy responses. Now, considerable evi- policy present two critical opportuni- source-dominated and lacking in high- dence is accumulating that Canadians ties. Equally important are openings er-value-added processing and manufac- are finding the Harper government’s re- in environmental and aboriginal af- turing, was a powerful political engine. sponse inadequate on two vital fronts: fairs. The Conservative government has This critique dominated the thinking economic policy and health care. taken on a colour that contemporary of the New Democratic Party and could Pollsters report growing numbers of Ca- (especially Latin American) political claim the support of a good chunk of nadians dissatisfied with the country’s scientists refer to as “extractivist”. The the Liberal Party, centered about Walter economic record and prospects under term, coined in the 1990s and derived Gordon. Major federal policies of the the Harper Conservatives. The argu- from botanical processes, refers to gov- Trudeau government arose from this ment that Canada is doing better than ernments that are focused primarily on strain of thinking, including the For- our G7 competitors has grown thin. resource-based economic development, eign Investment Review Act, the forma- Hence the 2013-14 Budget’s tax expen- generally at the expense of environ- tion of Petro-Canada, and, arguably, the ditures on stimulating manufacturing mental and aboriginal policy claims. National Energy Program itself. – the closest Harper’s Ottawa has and There is evidence that the kind of poli- perhaps can come, since the 2008 crisis, One of the many touch-points tics surrounding the extraction econo- to an activist economic policy – and the in redefining the relationship my in the 1960s and 1970s can stage a barrage of Economic Plan paid adver- of aboriginal Canada to the contemporary comeback. The foreign tising this winter. We’ll see how much ownership issues of 2011-12 in the oil these measures do to reverse the tide of country as a whole will be patch and elsewhere have re-awakened public opinion that is souring on the resource revenues and their the debate. The care and caution with government’s economic agenda. co-management by First which the Harper government has Health care is also marching up the Nations and outside interests. conducted itself around the issue is a electorate’s priority list. The phenome- testament to its latent power. On the non of an aging society is no longer just other side of the House of Commons, on the radar; it is now winging in onto Thomas Mulcair has pursued the eco- the flight deck.

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