Despite all the salivating over Justin Trudeau, the Liberal leadership race does have other candidates.Some of them are actually quite impressive: Deborah Coyne is one of the nation’s top constitutional lawyers and was involved in the opposition to the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords; Martha Hall Findlay spent most of her adult life as a top corporate lawyer and business executive on Bay Street; Joyce Murray was a B.C. cabinet minister who prior to politics ran a reforestation company; Marc Garneau has a PhD in engineering, 677 hours of space flight as Canada’s first astronaut, and five years as head of the Canadian Space Agency.
Broadly speaking Murray represents the left of the Liberal party in this race, while Trudeau and Coyne represent the National Greatness wing of the Liberals — those in the party who, like Trudeau’s father, sought to build grand, national projects and institutions and desired a strong central government in order to do so. What is most interesting about this race, however, is that two of the most formidable challengers are members of the right wing of the Liberal party. Garneau, a one-time Mulroney supporter, frequently criticizes Harper for spending too much and not seriously tackling the deficit. Hall Findlay has come under fire from both her own party and the Conservatives for opposing Canada’s system of supply management, saying it distorts markets and inflates prices on everyday goods.
The small size of the current Liberal caucus affords the right wing of the party a more substantial voice. This is to the Liberal’s benefit. In deciding who next to have as their leader, the Liberals should ask themselves a very serious question: Is the real divide in the Canadian electorate between a large conservative plurality and a divided left-wing that swings between NDP and Liberal, or is it between two small groups on the extremes and a large centrist contingent who tend to swing between the Liberals and the Conservatives?
It would seem from recent history that the more likely scenario is the latter. It is true that ‘uniting the right’ brought about a much more substantial Conservative presence in Parliament, but many forgot that well before the merger, a single conservative party often formed government on its own merits. Similarly, the Liberals were able to form government without the help of the NDP, and despite a united conservative party opposing them for most of this country’s history. The reason for this is that the Liberals and Conservatives have, for the better part of Canada’s history, been two sides of the same coin. When the elder Trudeau ran against Robert Stanfield, he did so by labeling the Progressive Conservative’s ideas of a national minimum income and other massive social welfare schemes as unaffordable — only later to adopt many of the same policies himself once in power. When Chretien and Martin were in power, they slashed the civil service and federal debt more stringently than Harper and Flaherty.
Somehow, Trudeau and Chretien won re-election despite their plans being almost identical to those of their conservative opponents. Could it be that it was not despite their plans’ similarities that they won, but because of them? Could Canada be, broadly speaking, a centrist country that seeks out pragmatic policies to address the important issues of the time, rather than a far-left utopia that has somehow, recently been taken control of by a rogue faction of right-wingers? Yes it could.
This is the opportunity the Liberals have. Canada is having a conservative moment right now. There is a great desire to see the budget balanced and the economy grow. Election results seem to say that Canadians think the best way to achieve this is through free markets and small government. With Garneau or Hall Findlay at the helm, the Liberals could make a solid case that their free market credentials and their ability to balance budgets far exceeds that of the Conservatives. It will be this, not Trudeau’s star power, that will win elections and re-establish the Liberals as the natural governing party.
