The Big Red Machine is dead, and Canada has a new “natural governing party”. This is the logical conclusion to be drawn from recent political history in Canada. The latest poll bears this out, placing the Conservatives at 41%, and thus in majority government territory, while the Liberals continue their downward death spiral.
What makes this most recent poll such terrible news for Liberals is that it shows women moving away from the Liberal Party, with a vast majority stating that they think that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is not only dull and drab, but also highly untrustworthy.
Left-wing journalists, naturally, are trying to put a positive spin on the poll, arguing that the poll doesn’t show so much growing support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper as declining fortunes for Ignatieff. This is blatantly untrue. Ignatieff’s popularity is sinking, but the prime minister is also connecting with more and more voters across the board.
Harper has succeeded in doing the seemingly impossible: convince Canadians that his Conservative Party doesn’t have the kind of “hidden agenda” that Liberals would always accuse them of having. Instead, he’s managed to turn the tables on the Liberals, with a growing percentage of voters now believing that it is the Liberals who harbour a hidden agenda.
Over the last year or so, in particular, one thing has become crystal-clear: Canadians have fallen out of love with the Liberals at long last. Whenever there is talk of a possible election, the poll numbers for Liberals plummet. This is a clear sign that Canadians are not only reluctant to go through yet another election, but also determined to keep the Liberals from the levers of power.
While Harper has shown that he can be flexible whenever necessary, as his Big-Government, “socialist” 2009 budget so amply demonstrated, the Liberals have been unable to come up with any ideas or policies that would excite voters.
On the leadership front, the Liberals have failed too. Jean Chrétien will always be remembered as the “Prime Minister of Corruption”, but Canadians, inexplicably, still liked the guy. But once Chrétien had finally shuffled off, the Liberals weighted themselves down with Paul Martin, Stéphane Dion and, now, Michael Ignatieff.
None of those post-Chrétien leaders did a great, or even mediocre, job. Donations to the Liberal Party started drying up, and even long-time Liberal supporters began drifting towards the Conservative Party after realizing that Harper was the best game in town after all.
As more and more voters are beginning to understand that there is only one party looking out for Canada and trying to get the best deal for all Canadians, the Liberals are moving in the opposite direction, making themselves look petty, partisan and motivated by self-interest.
“If you put the party first, you never lose,” Ignatieff said the other day, showing off the Liberals’ true colours. What matters to Liberals is the Liberal Party, but not the country as such.
As if on cue, out on a stage steps Harper, starts hitting the piano keys and belts out a Beatles song in the presence of Yo-Yo Ma. It is hard not to feel a little pity for the Liberals, who must be realizing now that their leader will never be this kind of prime minister “of the people and for the people”.
After tickling the ivories, Harper will surely see his approval rating rise even further; the new poll doesn’t yet reflect the prime minister’s new superstar status. Ignatieff, however, will be forced to think seriously about his future as Liberal leader – and as a Canadian resident.
With the prime minister basking in the limelight, the most attention Ignatieff has managed to attract his way has been his infighting with the Québec wing of his party, which will likely result in a considerable drop in future polls.
The Liberal brand has been severely damaged in recent years, and it almost seems beyond repair. The party has run out of “talent”, such as it ever was, and will be looking at many more years of ineffectual leadership and lack of ideas.
Canadians, meanwhile, are cottoning on to the veracity of an old saying: Le ciel est bleu, l’enfer est rouge – The sky or heaven is (Conservative) blue; hell is (Liberal) red.
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