No sign of anyone with the ‘It’ factor in this race
Work in Progress By Ivan Morgan
The Tories will be having a leadership convention this year, and already candidates are lining up. I hate being forced into the role of telling folks publicly what a loved one should have pulled them aside and quietly told them in private. Your announcement hasn’t quickened any pulses. If it was going to happen it would have happened already.
Is it me? Their slogans seem shopworn, tired, and uninspiring. Same boring upbeat ill-defined blather. Same bold announcements about a better tomorrow. Same nonsense that they will make things right, but no details. Short on specifics, long on hope.
To me it looks like same-old, same-old. Where’s the excitement? The hope? Maybe you can win over your party. Ches did. But win over us? That’s another story. You are going to need someone the people want to elect.
Years ago, I found myself in a swanky downtown hotel bar being dragged by a buddy, who had seen me in the lobby, to a table of rich businessmen. Let me paint the scene. I had shoulder length hair, was wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, and had about $5 to my name. I had no business being in that bar and certainly couldn’t afford what they charged for even a bottle of water.
My friend pushed me into the booth with these business guys saying “Seriously. An honest to God lefty! A Dipper in fact! Works in human rights! Imagine! Go ahead, touch him – he doesn’t bite.”
I let him have his fun, mostly because they bought me a double single malt (fun fact – corporate types have the best Scotch).
After introductions they returned to the discussion I had interrupted.
“Who does he think he is? Does he think he can just walk in and take over! I’ve been a member of this party for decades and I promise you he isn’t just going to walk over me. If he thinks everything is just going to be handed to him, he has another thing coming!”
They were talking about local lawyer and businessperson Danny Williams, who at the time was making noises about becoming leader of the Progressive Conservatives. We all know the rest of this story.
For better or worse, those were exciting times.
Today, not so much. We are having some serious leadership issues in this province. We need new people, with real excitement, not the manufactured excitement written by communications people. Hint: you are not a leader because you tell us you are.
The latest crop of Tories seems shopworn and tired. This week they called for an ethics investigation into the Premier’s friendship with businessman John Risley. This tired “inside baseball” theatrics isn’t solving our health care crisis, paying off Muskrat Falls or addressing any other of the tsunami of troubles we face. There must be a better political strategy than “I’m telling Mom.”
The political culture needs new faces. The Tory party needs new faces. They know it, I know it, and most importantly, the electorate knows it.
The Liberals recently got a new face to put out front. Not much of a rebranding but given the circumstances it worked for them – just.
A very highly placed Liberal of my acquaintance agreed with me and summed up his party’s popularity nicely.
“We are like that team in a sports division who’s really not that good, but the other teams are hopeless, so we always win the pennant.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
Paul Lane recently made a call for people to think of running as independents, saying elections may be a way off, but if you are thinking of running, now is the time to get busy. As the kids would say, true dat!
Maybe that’s it? To my mind the benefits of being elected an independent far outweigh being pushed around by a political party. A nice yaffle of newly elected independent candidates may be very refreshing. Who knows what might come of it?
Provincial politics is stagnant and tired. There just doesn’t seem to be anyone interesting stepping up with new ideas, a new approach, a new anything.
Or maybe is everything great?
Maybe its just me?
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com