CANADA IN DECLINE

Glorious warm Saturday and we headed over the bridge that crosses the Bay of Quinte and south down to the Sobey Mall in Picton and the opening of the Liberal office for Prince Edward County. It was a gathering of Liberal supporters, some of them transfers from the defunct Progressive Conservative party. Red colours dominated.

Peter Tinsley, the Liberal candidate, is getting more practiced and somewhat more expansive in the points he wants to make. The point Peter made that stood out for me was his contention that the Conservative government has failed to work with others nationally and internationally.

I have a sense of what Peter Tinsley was referring to. The failure nationally is evident in the acrimonious tone of the debates in the recent Parliament. Lyle Vanclief, successful Liberal candidate in previous years, M.P. for Prince Edward Hastings (1988-2004) and long-term Minister of Agriculture (1997-2003), admitted that he no longer watches CPAC. He finds that he cannot tolerate the tone of the parliamentary debates.

Vanclief's comment took me back to my recent conversation with a Jamaican-born Canadian, a retired Bank of Nova Scotia executive. The Conservative candidate, Darryl Kramp, had come to his door seeking his vote. The 86 year old former executive told Kramp that he regularly watches Question Period and informed Kramp that he would not have hired any of the past parliament for any business with which he was involved.

One might judge it fitting that a government that provoked a high level of discord among representatives fell on a vote of no confidence on the finding that the government was in contempt of Parliament.

The failure to collaborate with others internationally is evident in the decline in respect for Canada as an honest broker. The Harper government has taken a rigid stance in support of Israel. In past other governments could rely on Canada for a more even-handed approach to world events, critiquing and supporting according to specific events and established facts. This shift in behaviour in international relations and subsequent decline in Canada's reputation has resulted in Canada's loss of a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Not an important loss for those who do not support the U.N. On the other hand, for those who think that there is room for the U.N. and broad-based collaboration, convincing evidence of Canada's decline.

A long-term resident of Prince-Edward County explained to me the political situation on the County. She noted that her friends, many of them seniors, were somewhat out of touch reading mainly the local county newspapers. When it came to voting they often did what their family had always done, vote Progressive Conservative. We agreed that they should be made aware that the Progressive Conservative Party no longer existed. They have been swallowed by the Reform-based Conservative party.