Townsman, 1991-04, Page 33The country's
mood breathes
life into new
parties
BY JIM FITZGERALD
As the level of distemper rises in
Canada, leaders and politicians of all
stripes are wondering what the face of
this country will look like by the tum
of the century - if indeed there is any-
thing left of the country that many of
us finally discovered and defined
from our mythical halcyon days of the
Centennial celebrations in 1967 (a
myth is a set memories of a time past
from which distance has removed the
bad parts.)
Canadians lately are suffering from
an identity crisis like no other time in
our immediate past. We've never real-
ly untied the strings from Great
Britain or France and came up with
our own set of symbols and culturel
as did our over -patriotic cousins to
the south. While the percentage of
those who can trace their parentage
back to the British Isles has declined
to 43 per cent in the last five years,
and those of French parentage is down
to 25 per cent, those from other cul-
tures around the world has risen to 32
per cent, according to the latest sur-
veys. Because, rightly or wrongly,
Canada tried to embrace these new
peoples in a type of mosaic culture,
rather than force them into a melting
pot culture as the Americans have, it
is causing much friction among citi-
zens. And although we adopted a new
flag and a national anthem 25 years
ago, Canadians never felt at ease with
a new nationalism. Throwing out old
symbols of the past without adopting
new ones has caused an identity
crises.
This is all quite evident in the furor
created recently by allowing new
Canadians to wear their traditional
1
head gear in the Mounties, or the
Ontario government eliminating refer-
ences to the Queen in police oaths, or
the elimination of the Lord's Prayer in
schools. For those people over 45
years of age, who really control the
capital of the country, and who,
according to studies, are the most
likely of all voters to turn out at the
polls, it has led to growing discontent.
This all comes on top of a failed
Meech Lake and Free trade agree-
ments, a very unpopular Goods and
Services Tax, the closing of post.
offices, ending Via Rail service, and a
litany of complaints that's topped off a
recession and growing government
deficits. Simmering in a background
are long-standing disputes with metri-
fication and bilingualism.
Candidly question anyone on the
streets in small town Ontario or
Alberta, and the odds are that two out
of three will verify what the latest
opinion polls are showing: Canadians
are angry and they feel powerless.
Because of widely publicized scandals
and sexual improprieties, many have
lost faith in some of their traditional
institutions, such as the church, the
medical profession, the education sys-
tem, and particularly, the political sys-
tem. This pent up rage has already
toppled one government in Ontario,
and is about to throw out two more in
Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
As well, it will likely spell the end of
the federal Conservative government
as a national party, if and when they
find enough nerve to put their necks
on the line for the electorate, some-
time next year or the spring of 1993.
And rightly or wrongly, all three
main -stream political parties - PCs,
Liberals, and NDP - are becoming the
lightning rods for this pent up discon-
tent.
So who will save us from this certain
morass? Da dah, drum roll please!
Entering stage right is our White
Knight, Preston Manning and the
Reform party, and on stage left, the
creator and perhaps first president of
the Country of Quebec, Benoit
Bouchard of the Bloc Quebecois.
Although Prime Minister Mulroney
is running scared of Bouchard's new
party, he is taking the Reform threat
even more seriously since in three
short years since its formation, it has
attracted wide -spread popularity from
B.C. right through to eastern Ontario.
Just witness the Prime Minister's lat-
est cabinet shuffle that in desperation
- for the first time in a quarter of a
century - sees a cabinet that's not built
around a powerful Quebec faction.
For the first time in six decades, it has
a Westerner, Don Mazankowski, as
finance minister, not to mention a for-
mer prime minister and Mulroney's
former enemy, Alberta's Joe Clark in
the important role as minister of fed-
eral -provincial relations at a very cru-
cial time in our history. But has Mul-
roney's latest action been the
tourniquet to cut the hemorrhaging of
his western base?
At this point, many think not. Man-
ning, the son of former Alberta Social
Credit Premier Ernest Manning and
his band of populist Reformers, have
risen from obscurity to national recog-
nition, according to observers, by
pushing all the right buttons. Their
platform is playing to the discontent
felt by those 43 per cent mentioned
previously. Believe me, as one who
personally spent three months last
summer travelling the concession
roads and main streets 12 hours a day,
six days a week, Preston Manning
echoes the beliefs of many people and
will be a force to be reckoned with.
He is a smart and credible man. He
has the "loonie" fringe at bay in his
party, and he has widespread appeal
unlike other one -issue parties such as
the COR and the Christian Heritage
parties, and is in firm control of the
agenda.
It could mean the extinction of
national parties, which once united
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TOWNSMAN/APRIL-MAY 1991 31