Preston Manning spoke last night at U of T’s Scarborough Campus. The lecture, entitled “Changing the National Agenda,” is one of a series of lectures held at UTSC through the Watts Memorial Lecture Series.
Manning has worn many hats, but perhaps his biggest wig was leader of the Reform Party of Canada from 1987-2000. After forming the Canadian Alliance as an attempt to unite the right, Manning ran for the leadership of the nascent party, losing to flash-in-the-pan Stockwell Day.
Manning was also the leader of the opposition in Parliament from 1997-2000, and opposition critic for science and technology from 2000 to 2001.
“Tonight, I want to tell you a story,” Manning began the one-hour lecture. “A story of how a few people, not many, can change the national agenda of Canada using the tools that democracy has given freely to us all.”
Manning’s speech touched on four different topics: new political parties, issue campaigning, coalition-building and looking ahead to the future.
Regarding new political parties, Manning said “Know your country. Politics is not something that’s cut in a vacuum. When it comes to new parties as a vehicle for change, there are different attitudes in various regions across the country.”
Manning noted that, in Western Canada and Quebec, new parties are not as out of synch as they are in Ontario. “Making new parties is part of a tradition [out west],” Manning said, as opposed to the “two party, PC or Liberal attitude that is common in Ontario.”
About issue campaigning, Manning said “The aim of an issue campaign is to raise an issue higher than it is at the time that you start out.”
On coalition-building, Manning said “I see coalition-building as the most important skill of all. Coalitions are everywhere. Coalition-building is one of the only ways left of getting things done.”
Manning noted that, without coalitions, parties from many countries cannot come into power. “They’re everywhere from European governments to successful U.S. companies,” he argued.
“The group of political people who learn to build coalitions is the one that is going to get things done in the next decade, and in this century,” he said.
Looking ahead, the former opposition of parliament leader said: “Whoever figures out three things—the principals of democratic discourse, effective campaign-building and coalition-building, will change the future of this country,” adding, “If you want to get anything, from health care to reform, higher on the democratic national agenda, there is a place to do it.”
Besides working for the right-wing Fraser Institue think tank, Manning is a visiting lecturer at U of T’s own Massey College.
