An important thing to note is that they are no longer Progressive Conservatives, they are strictly Conservatives now. It’s more than just a name, the merger with the Reform party took them to the right of where they were before. Even O’Toole with his claimed support of abortion rights is no Red Tory.
At this stage, I would say the Liberals are slightly to the left of the Conservatives. I do not think the gap to be very large. It is true that many share your healthy suspicions. The Conservatives have, to my surprise, not really mentioned economics very much. A lot can happen to a budget over ten years.
One difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives may be there is a fringe group in the Conservative party that, for the sake of brevity over precision, we may call Trump-like, or Trump-lite. Managing that group and their expectations may prove troublesome for the Conservatives. And there is a Reform Party element that pushes for a more right wing economic agenda than the Liberals would support on the campaign trail. Once in power, of course, the Grits and Tories are less distinct.
Yes, put me in the beyond suspicion category as well. Austerity for all (except for the rich)!
My concern is that a CPoC PM would be increasingly beholden to the elements further right. How can I trust O’Toole when he says he’s not a social conservative but keeps courting social conservatism? How can I trust O’Toole when he keeps trying to play both sides on climate change? On vaccines?
What sort of PM will he be? I don’t know, and that’s enough for me to not vote for him. It was the same problem with Scheer (except at least he was much more obviously a social conservative although he was afraid to say it). Take a position, and I’ll either support you or not. But take every position, and I won’t support you for sure. While Trudeau is hardly a stellar PM, at least I know what I’ll get. I also have a good feeling of what I would get with a Singh PM, and hence that’s something I can support.
Of course, the CPoC positions it does take are not something I can support.
What I would like is a minority Liberal government leavened by a strong NDP contribution.
My personal interest is that the health care system is broken, but that is primarily a provincial problem.
Healthcare is partly a federal matter—the feds can make big changes in funding and directing that funding to certain outcomes. One of the changes Liberals and Conservatives have made over the years is to change the funding formulas and to take a more hands-off approach to provincial spending.
My concern is that a CPoC PM would be increasingly beholden to the elements further right. How can I trust O’Toole when he says he’s not a social conservative but keeps courting social conservatism? How can I trust O’Toole when he keeps trying to play both sides on climate change? On vaccines?
Yeah, that’s also kind of where I find myself. I’m surprisingly interested in CPC this time around, but ultimately remain somewhat skeptical of O’Toole’s ability to keep his base in check. I would have liked to see him run this party for a year or two more to see if it’s something he was able to do, but here we are.
If you are worried about the Conservatives moving to the right… one of their campaign promises is to require a worker’s representative to sit on the board of any company that does business with the government. I believe that’s also a policy the Democrats are supporting in the states.
If anything, it looks like the Conservatives are moving left, not right.
It’s great for the labour bureaucrats who get paid to sit on those boards, but means nothing in terms of gains for workers.
In Europe boards with worker representatives are more common, and since the goal is for increased harmony between worker, business and shareholder (stakeholder) interests the idea is sometimes considered Conservative.
However, worker rights in countries like Germany are much more established with many other legal protections such as bargaining by industrial sector. It might be hard in Canada for workers to be guaranteed an equal voice, but there is some merit to the idea. Public unions may not need it, however, and unions in the private sector may not benefit from it much - depending on the parameters.
If the NDP had suggested it people would be talking about what a great idea it was.
If Trudeau had suggested it, conservatives would be saying that it’s the worst idea in the history of ideas, and proposing a law banning ideas.
Everyone can play the What If? game! It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s meaningless!
It seems like a decent enough idea, but one or two relatively minor elements of a platform are not enough to capture my vote. Especially when the main elements vis a vis my ideology are very far apart, and I simply do not trust O’Toole. Every election I can probably find something in every platform with which I agree. Back when I was voting for Harper, there were some ideas coming out of the NDP with which I agreed (for example, tying corporate tax breaks to job creation).
Suggesting that this one thing means the CPoC is drifting left is comical, when then are quite obviously not drifting left. I mean come on? I can only hope that was posted as a joke except I somehow doubt it.
The Conservatives seem to be making a lot of vague and rather benign statements about controversial issues. The Liberals are leaping all over these, in a somewhat excessive manner. Conservative columnists see this as a smart tactic, but the Liberals have had a lot of mileage over the years with claims of a hidden agenda and these will continue. The Liberals might have more to fear from Singh than O’Toole. NDP support has stayed very steady, though. And the Liberals rhetoric plays well in Quebec.
I think O’Toole is trying not to enrage his base while trying to appeal to more voters outside of AB/SK. There’s already a lot of talk in the right-wing social media sphere about voting PPC or Maverick to protest O’Toole. If he enrages them, then they may follow through or stay home.
The national polls are promising for O’Toole at the moment, but I don’t think it will last as we get deeper into the campaign.
I am glad to see that bad social media posts are causing backlash for both the CPoC and the Liberals. We don’t need that kind of garbage up here. Stick with your platform and tell us what you’re going to do and not why so-and-so is just a baby or whatever.
If my Aunt had balls, she’d be my Uncle.
Also, I wouldn’t like it if Sacco and Vanzetti suggested it. Which they wouldn’t. I note parenthetically that Canada Post has a “labour representative” on its board, and it has made absolutely no difference to anything. Well,I presume the labour rep sees a difference in his bank account
Hear Hear !!
Pssst. The Democrats are not really “left” in terms of Canadian politics. Despite what certain media outlets tell you about how evil and socialist the Democrats are. They are not.