Diane Francis, in today's NP (not available online until tomorrow) offers a slightly different take from Dexter on the MacKay/Orchard compromise. Her tone is pro-conservative but opposed to both men, but her prognosis is slightly more optimistic, at least for those who see the Tories as well intentioned but obsolete. She argues that the combination of MacKay's Maritime heritage (which makes him less likely to win over Western cons from the CA) and Orchard's pugnacious anti-business attitudes (she actually uses the phrase "illiterate farmer") will finally push Western conservatives all the way into the Alliance camp, while giving the Alliance enough of a push in the Ontario business community to enable them to break the barrier that has for so long made them the party of the West.
The Alliance, for its part, must continue to signal its intention to be the party of all Canadians who consider themselves conservative, whether fiscal or social, and who are tired of defining our national culture in anti-American, philo-Eurosocialist terms. While learning French is of some advantage, few Francophone Quebecers will ever likely vote Alliance, and the Tories there will never die. It is more important that the Alliance find and field local candidates in Ontario and the Maritimes who can combine intellectual and credible conservatism with an understanding of regional problems and issues. More extensive campaigning and more frequent appearance by the party leaders in these areas would add further credibility to the Alliance's claim no longer to be a regional party. The Alliance are in many ways, and especially in Central and Eastern Canada, unknowns. Fortunately for them, many Canadians are rapidly reaching the conclusion that any unknown will be better than yet more Liberal reign.
Posted by Clio at June 5, 2003 01:58 PM