Monday, September 24, 2007
The Secret
I don't like to dwell on political stuff in this blog, but this bit was too hard to resist.
Canada gets a lot of buzz these days as being a basically decent place whose public policy, on the whole, rolls out in a more sensible way than some other places one could mention.
What's the secret? This week, the formula for Canada's moderate, sensible politics was eloquently summarized by an unlikely source: Tom Flanagan!
This name will mean nothing to you Americans, so permit me to bore you with a quick recap: in the 1990s, Canadian conservatives were in a vicious civil war in which they were split into two parties, one rather radical and the other quite moderate (the latter's name, Progressive Conservative, pretty much said it all).
After a decade and a half of beating their heads against the wall, the radicals basically gave up and, for all intents and purposes, rejoined the traditional old moderate Tory party.
Flanagan is a Calgary right-wing academic (which is a bit like calling some one a Texas redneck ... the two terms just amplify each other). He was one of the intellectual leaders of the radical right faction. His statement in the Globe and Mail this weekend asserting the importance of moderate politics is, for my money, the final declaration of surrender from that group.
[Here's the real quick-and-dirty American translation: this is like Ross Perot saying "the main thing in politics is not to do anything crazy"]
The principles he "recommends" to the Canadian Tory (Conservative) party are in fact nothing new. They are the principles that every successful party in this country has always used.
If every political party, all over the world, could stick to this agenda, we'd all be better off.
I'll just give you the big labels and a link to the full declaration:
Tom Flanagan's "Ten Commandments of Conservative Campaigning"
- Unity
- Moderation
- Inclusion
- Incrementalism
- Policy
- Self-Discipline
- Toughness
- Grassroots politics
- Technology
- Persistence
On one level, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this article. These are exactly the principles that we Progressive Conservatives were screaming at people like Flanagan for the better part of two decades. Nice that they're finally listening. Would have been nicer ten years ago. (Not that I'm bitter or anything.)
posted by Mentok @ 9:59 a.m.,
4 Comments:
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At 12:54 p.m.,
said...
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I would be bitter, in fact I am bitter for you. How's that? ;-)
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At 4:09 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Put it all together, whaddaya get?? UMIIPSTGTP!!
Er, isn't that the second word on that there tablet Moses Heston's holding?? -
At 9:53 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Rachel - aw, thanks for your stand-in bitterness. I appreciate the sentiment, but really the whole silly business was never really worth it.
FiL - it's funny you mention that. My youngest son, the dance prodigy, has taken a shine to that Dancing Lasha Tumba song, and Umiipstgtp sounds like it might be one of the Ukrainian lyrics:
"Seiben, seiben, umiipst
Seiben, umiipstgtp"
Can't you just hear it? -
At 5:46 p.m.,
Rick said...
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Mentok, that's the perfect picture for your post. Moses Heston, as fil put it, holding out the 10 commandments. Looking at conservatives today in the US, you see them quavering on the edge of either a split or a reconciliation, depending on your perspective, with the lead candidates for next year's election being conservatives from New York and Massachusetts. Oh, and another movie star.
Anyway, no point in being bitter. Unless you're a pint of beer.
