Revolutionary Moderation

Shotgun wedding, fifteen years in the making.



Let's Make a Deal is finally over - Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay have taken door number three (wisely changing from door number one after Monty exposed a monkey with electrodes in his brain behind number two), and are going home with a year's supply of Turtle Wax and a brand-spanking new party: the "Conservative Party". That's right - the party of John A is "new".



(I think it's ironic that the one thread that really connects both parties is the one they're tossing out of the room: the Progressive Conservatives were named when the Tories absorbed the remainder of the then-waning Progressive Party, a grassroots western movement elected to press for democratization in Parliament. The Reform Party Canadian Alliance Conservative Party would do well to preserve that bit of their history, because it's the "Progressives" flavour that's going to keep the old Reformers comfortable in the party they left twenty years ago.)



What a situation. The RPC Alliance are ready to sign because Harper is turning out to be something less than the great white hope of the party (I'm not a big Layton fan, but you see more of him saying smarter thing on the evening news than you do of Harper, the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition), and they can't dump a second leader in two years. MacKay wants to sign so he can have a series of speaking engagements after he loses the leadership. "The topic tonight: how my deal with David Orchard didn't actually mean anything." Everyone wins, except the voter, who will be having her or his choices reduced by one come the next federal election.



Here's a better idea than this merger. Make every vote count - adopt proportional representation. I didn't love the idea when the NDP was first trumpeting it in Alberta a few years back, but I've become convinced over the last few weeks.