Author:
HUEGLIN FOR DAILY DIGEST
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 01:04:54 12/14/03 Sun
Author Host/IP: d150-108-94.home.cgocable.net/24.150.108.94
RileyBYLINE: Susan Riley
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen
Peter MacKay's strange dance
There is a wicked rumour going around that Peter MacKay has made a secret
deal with Stephen Harper: MacKay won't oppose Harper in the race to lead
the new Conservative Party of Canada and, in return, will be named interim
leader when the Commons resumes in January and deputy leader after the next
election.
But why would the 0ne-time Tory leader give up his chance at the top job?
Because he doesn't have a hope of winning. He infuriated half the Tory
membership by making a deal with David Orchard to secure the leadership
last May, then outraged the other half by violating that pact weeks later.
He
has cut Red Tories adrift by negotiating a merger with the despised Alliance
behind their backs and alienated much of his caucus by keeping Tory MPs in
the dark about those negotiations while Harper regularly briefed his
troops.
Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison's startling defection to the Liberals this week
was the product of complicated factors, but there is nothing complex about
this: At least five of the Tory's 15-member caucus are gone or going and
more will depart when Harper wins the leadership in March. That is, if
Harper wins the leadership, although he remains the man to catch.
Almost lost in the uproar over Brison was another revealing development:
Bruck Easton, the president of the PC party, is publicly accusing MacKay of
high-handed meddling in the transition process, of overriding the party's
management committee and inserting his own, hand-picked candidates to help
shape the new party and oversee the leadership race. Easton, an even-handed
Windsor lawyer, has remained neutral through the last tumultuous year and
isn't identified with any leadership faction. Despite that, he is being
excluded from the powerful joint Alliance-Tory committee that will run the
new party for the next several months. Said Easton yesterday: "I have no
idea why they've come after me." No one else does, either.
That the party president would be driven to publicly rebuke the leader
speaks volumes about MacKay's insensitivity at a fragile time in his
party's evolution. It is as if he set out to deliberately provoke every
last,
breathing Progressive Conservative at a time when many are still reeling
from recent events.
Neither is it the action of a man trying to curry favour in a leadership
campaign -- although why would MacKay be trying to influence the race if he
has no intention of running? This brings us to rumour number two: MacKay is
going through the motions of setting up a campaign to unsettle his former
rival, Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice (who is the only declared candidate so
far) and to keep Harper guessing. At a convenient moment, however, MacKay
is ready to hand over his machine to a more plausible candidate for future
considerations -- the promise of a prominent critic position, probably. Or
he will simply leave politics for a while and return to law.
These rumours are based on background conversations with five or six
well-connected Progressive Conservatives, none of whom wanted to be
identified. What matters as much as the details is the fact that the
backrooms are alive with this kind of speculation and some very raw
feelings. The bitterness between Mac-Kay and Brison (which runs both ways)
emerged publicly this week, when MacKay accused his former leadership
rival -- the more innovative and media-savvy Brison -- of "cynical and
manipulative" behaviour in joining the Liberals. He suggested that Brison
had been bought off by Paul Martin. "There is something in it for Scott,"
he said. "There's always something in it for Scott."
For his part, Brison was careful not to criticize his former party or
MacKay and he had plausible reasons for leaving -- notably, the fact that as
an
openly gay man he could never have won the Conservative Party leadership.
Whether he was wise to join the Liberals remains to be seen. But Brison,
like other moderate PCs, was in a bind: candidates for the new party will
be chosen in February, but they won't know who the new leader is until
March.
If it is Harper, Brison has said he would not run.
There are yet more rumours that other "moderate" conservatives will
declare,such as former party stalwart Hugh Segal or Mulroney-era minister
Perrin
Beatty. These probably amount to wishful thinking; there isn't enough time
now to mount a credible campaign from scratch.
As for MacKay, becoming deputy leader would give him time to rehabilitate
his reputation. Lately, he has looked thin-skinned, untrustworthy,
motivated by personal spite more than principle and happy to revive the
bare-knuckle,
ruthless political style favoured by his sometimes mentor, Brian Mulroney.
Not a reputation to build a successful campaign on.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
|
Feedback: 