Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Party of Nationbuilding: Time To Build

With the recent revelations (well, not really revelations to those of us who knew all along), we have to fear there is going to be an increased public perception of dishonesty in politics. Scratch the NDP, Greens, and even more irrelevant Bloc, the fact is the public is going to lose faith even more after this Conservative scam... More so as more facts come to light.

Something is stinky in Ottawa, and it needs to be fixed. Grumpy Voter made some good points about us not "pointing fingers" and laughing... I mean, hey, the public has fairly long memories (everyone remember Mulroney?). One thing he does forget though, is that this current Conservative scandal (one of many) taints the entire party - including the leadership. And by taint, I mean that it appears they are all involved. On the Liberal side of things, we know that Adscam was basically some members of the Quebec wing playing stupid with the rules.

So what can we do - in a positive vein - to attract voters? We can sit back and let angry Canadians slide over to us. They will. There is, however, always a fear that there is slippage to the Greens... Maybe even the Bloc in Quebec. What can we do to really stand out? I say we introduce aggressive new accountability guidelines in Ottawa. Something the NDP and Bloc would support. Talk about these being "real" measures - unlikes Harper's "lip-service/anything-to-get-elected plan". Let the Tories vote against it - THEN - we topple the government and give Canadians a choice. A choice to vote FOR something, rather than against it.

Think we can do this? Give Canadians something to vote FOR??? To be really accepted with open arms, it may be the best thing we can do for ourselves. If we don't, we may suffer in the near future as well - as the odd Quebec operative gets trotted before the courts and reminds the public of old stuff that doesn't involve the whole party - but drags us through the mud...

Sound accountability measures - maybe giving the auditor general more staff - coupled with a strong Liberal/liberal, center-of-the-road platform with a solid economic, social, and environmental plan, WILL get us elected.

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