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Ted Halstead, Neil Nevitte, Elizabeth Gidengil and Mike Harris |
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Mike Harris, like Margaret Thatcher, has become a political liability |
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| Ottawa - Thursday, August 15, 2002 - by: Mahmood Elahi | |
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pariah |
Margaret Thatcher, who once won three back-to-back majorities for the Conservative Party in Britain, is now a political pariah to be avoided. When she campaigned for the Tories in the last election, most Conservatives gave up any hope of winning. In fact, the Conservative Party suffered its second catastrophic defeat in the last election with Mrs. Thatcher acting as a cheer leader. |
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tax cuts |
Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris seems to have become a similar political liability like his mentor Margaret Thatcher. Once looked unbeatable, Harris decided to step down because he realized that Ontario voters are not likely to elect him after the public health disaster at Walkerton. The problem with both Thatcher and Harris is that their right-wing mantras of tax cuts and privatization longer excite the voters. Most voters have come to realize that tax cut is basically bribing people with their own money and like all bribes, they come with a price in the shape of crowded schools and hospitals and crumbling infrastructure. Private corporations are seen as nesting grounds of corporate crooks whose only job seems to be swindling the public to pay for their yatchs. |
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radical |
As for the uniting the right, most voters don't subscribe to any overtly right-wing (or left-wing) ideology. Most voters belong to what an American scholars, Ted Halstead, calls "the radical centre" - one whose agenda lies outside left and right. The Liberal party's electoral success stems from its ability to attract the centrist voters. The Progressive Conservative Party can only become a viable alternative if it can win back these mainstream voters away from the Liberal party. |
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conservatives |
As Prof. Neil Nevitte, of the University of Toronto, and Prof. Elisabeth Gidengil, of McGill University, pointed out in their study Unsteady State: The 1997 Canadian Federal Election: |
"Unite the right and fight for the right make for a catchy copy, but our evidence indicates that this may be wrong advice. It is wrong because it suggests that the alternative to the Liberals should be located to the right... Conservative voters, however, are closer ideologically to the Liberals than to Reform, whether it is a matter of law and order, moral traditionalism, or accommodating diversity. Tellingly, many more Conservatives named Liberals as their second choice than Reform. The clear implication of this line of reasoning is that the formation of a united alternative to the right could well help to guarantee the continued electoral dominance of the Liberal party." |
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This remains germane today. |
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| References: | |
| "Harris is problem, not the answer," by Susan Riley (August 12).Ottawa Citizen | |
| A Politics for Generation X, August 1999, Ted Halstead | |
| 77 North Washington Street, The Atlantic Online August 1999 background on Ted Halstead | |
| If the GDP is Up, Why is America Down, October 1995, the atlantic Online by Clifford Cobb, Ted Halstead and Jonathan Rowe. This outstanding piece explains the ins and outs of the GDP. | |
| A review of the book Unsteady State: The 1997 Canadian Federal Election | |
