In a piece lamenting the desperation of current attempts to unite the right, Rex Murphy looks back fondly on Preston Manning, suggesting that his attempts to do the same were somehow noble and selfless while the current effort is merely politics. This is of a piece with other attempts to cast Manning as the unsung hero of the right who had some profound and unprecedented effect on our country.
Here we are, let's say, four or five months before Paul Martin seems likely to rack up a win that would possibly blot out of existence the two shards which called themselves the Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party -- and the two leaders of those stalled rumps finally bend to mathematics and common sense and decide to merge.Brilliant. Selfless. Just what Canadian democracy needs.Well, if it's brilliant and selfless on the eve of an electoral Armageddon, at one minute to midnight before the writ drops and the abyss yawns its welcome to Tory and Alliance alike, how much more brilliant, I wonder, was this same idea when -- with years to execute it, time to mature it, and leisure to persuade all of the parties to its sweetness and wisdom -- it was first proposed?
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What was a great idea five years ago is a desperate lunge (can the sharpshooter cut the rope with his piercing bullet before the trapdoor is sprung?) and a reality-mugging at this stage of the game. What could have been done cleanly and openly years back when Preston Manning drew a bull's-eye on the necessary course for all conservatives to follow, is now done with a stage show of high party emissaries, a fanfare of double-dealing (Peter McKay, say goodbye to David Orchard) and guaranteed ructions from the loyalists of either party.
Is the right in Canada so hungry for heroes that they're unable to wait for history to actually judge Manning's accomplishments? This article put me in mind of another, more critical examination of Manning that, to my mind, hits a little closer to the mark.
Myth #1: Doing politics differently
From the outset, Manning and his followers portrayed themselves as the anti-establishment, non-political political party. Their movement, they promised, would do things differently in the nation's capital, and would never stand accused of having been "Ottawashed."
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[W]hen Manning lost the Canadian Alliance's inaugural leadership contest to Stockwell Day, the sudden erosion of his meticulously implemented power structure left the party in chaos.Instead, the tyranny of the grassroots - which remain mostly manipulated by party elites - has taken hold of what remains of Reform's vaunted democratic ideals.
Myth #2: The father of fiscal responsibility
If Manning is prepared to take credit for the attack on Canada's deficits and debts and the campaign to lower taxes, then he might as well take credit for similar efforts all across the Western world, too.In the 1990s, Democratic and Republican governments both nationally and locally in the United States, Labour governments across the Commonwealth (notably in the U.K. and New Zealand), and governments of all stripes in Canada (including provincial New Democrats) moved to control the deficits and debts which had accumulated and grown since the 1970s.
Myth #3: Canadian crusader
Whether one agrees with all of his positions or not, there is little question that ... Prime Minister [Chrétien] has spent his entire political career fighting separatists, in face-to-face battles with Réné Levesque, Lucien Bouchard, Gilles Duceppe, and countless others. As Pierre Trudeau's Justice Minister, Chrétien was one of the chief architects of the constitutional amending formula which embedded the notion of the equality of provinces that Manning and his supporters hold so dear.
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[Manning's] main contribution was a 1997 campaign ad that singled out his opponents as "Quebec politicians" and essentially doomed his party's fortunes amongst moderates.Myth #4: Constitutional reformer
For many involved in the earliest stages of Manning's movement, the Triple-E Senate was its raison d'etre.
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[O]n the one issue that Manning and the Reformers really staked their reputations on, their efforts amounted to absolutely nothing. In fairness, without forming government there simply wasn't a way for their party to force major Senate reform.Myth #5: Builder with a vision
Often cited as Manning's greatest accomplishment, the creation of the Reform party and its successor, the Canadian Alliance, is seen as nothing short of a political miracle in some circles.Conservative pundits often refer to the accomplishment, stating that it was the first time in history that a party had gone from "almost nothing" to Official Opposition almost overnight.
Sadly, the Progressive party (1921) and the Bloc Quebecois (1993) both beat the Reformers to the punch, robbing Manning and his followers of even this somewhat debatable accomplishment.
Only a few years after his retirement from politics, the party Manning built seems about to vanish, replaced by an uneasy amalgamation of "conservatives" whose overriding concern isn't so much the principles they hold dear, as the desire to re-establish a political force with enough credibility to attract corporate money and to avoid being wiped out of existence by the Martin machine in the next federal election. That's hardly the stuff of myth.
