I Almost Forgot Joe Clark
Last Sunday I drove into Toronto. On the radio all the talk was that Brian Mulroney had delivered a major speech, and given the strongest possible endorsement to the new Conservative Party and leader Stephen Harper. Harper was even quoted saying the Conservatives are united--not like the Liberals, who have been divided for so long between the Paul Martin and Jean Chretien factions.
Later that day Joe Clark delivered his bombshell: he's not thrilled about either Martin or Harper, but Martin might be a less bad Prime Minister. This is Clark's strongest statement yet that he will not support the new party, at least as long as it is led by Harper.
This reminds me of my never-ending article on Dalton Camp, and of the question: whither the Red Tories? One article in the Globe and Mail mentions a few high-profile ex-Tories who are supporting the Liberals, but it is not complete.
Listed here:
David Small, long-time Progressive Conservative organizer, especially for Clark now committed to working for a Liberal candidate in the upcoming election. He is out gay, and he makes it clear the new party's stance on the rights of gays is a big issue with him.
Senators Lowell Murray and Norman Atkins
Gary Carr, a former Tory speaker of the Ontario Legislature, has decided to seek a federal seat for the Liberals. (It is sloppy of the Globe not to mention that Carr got into a big fight with his fellow provincial Tories in the last few year or two).
Libby Burnham, a long-time Toronto Tory (An old joke about Canada's national media: "Turning now to the views of ordinary people, we'll go to the streets of Toronto--or to one of the nicer clubs, whichever we come to first").
Dennis Anderson, a former PC cabinet minister from Edmonton. (A former provincial minister, surely? Under Lougheed?)
Red Tories who are "sticking around":
Alberta's Scott Thorkelson
Peter MacKay, the former PC leader
Bill Davis, former Premier of Ontario, was one of the godfathers of the new party--along with Ralph Klein
As far as I know, Mike Harris and many of his former Cabinet and Caucus colleagues are working for the new party in some capacity. I don't know of any except Carr who are sitting out, much less crossing over.
The main point the article makes is that if even a small proportion of former PCs vote Liberal--say 10%, this would mean not all the "combined" Alliance and PC vote from last time will go to the new party; another Liberal majority may be the result. Harper needs to at least hang on to all that "combined" vote, especially in Ontario, and add to it.
Chantal Hebert writes in the Toronto Star that Clark seems to be opposing policies as Independent MP that he supported, or at least did not criticize, as party leader. Once again, however, the gay rights issue emerges in her account: Clark voted for the Svend Robinson bill to protect gays against discrimination; Peter Harper did not. Nearly one-third of Liberal MPs have said they will not support this bill when it comes to a vote in the Commons after the election.
Keith Martin, an MD and former Alliance and then (briefly) Conservative MP, is now a Liberal. To his credit, he has been consistent in advocating two-tier medicare, and getting trouble for doing so, in both or all of his parties.
Scott Brison, a former PC who ran for the leadership of that party, has crossed the floor and become a Parliamentary Secretary.
The sole remaining PC MP from Quebec has also crossed to the Liberals. I can't find details quickly.
John Ibbitson has written in the Globe that the true home for Red Tories now is the NDP.
Certainly by the end of his life, that's where Dalton Camp seemed to belong. He was even spouting quasi-Marxist economics like Naomi Klein: increasing concentration of capital in fewer hands, permanent underclass, etc. Presumably he always thought government programs could provide real and lasting help--a proposition Marx regarded as sentimental nonsense (the more the workers suffer, the sooner they'll demand the needed changes)--but Camp at least flirted with economic determinism, as do those NDPers who are normally not allowed to speak on TV.
We have learned from the biography of Camp that he had a group of supporters who actually wanted him to become Prime Minister. A bit embarrassingly, one would think, they each carried one card from a deck with them--a spade--and Camp carried the ace. (What if one more follower had joined? A joker?) There were no women, even though Flora MacDonald may have been Camp's most loyal supporter. Lowell Murray was one. So was William Saunderson, who turned out to be a dud as a minister under Mike Harris; and Roy McMurtry, who for some years has been a judge in Ontario.
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