Depends on the tune - Photo Credit: Global News

HCBAX9NPSJB8 It is a truism that the Conservative’s base votes. When it comes to the nitty gritty hardship of going all the way to that local community building and making an X, the core supporters of said party are never apathetic (except arguably about what the Conservatives are doing).

The base on the Left? What base on the left? There may be a few who remember the union-championing roots of the NDP and never sway from supporting said party. There are certainly some environmental activists who swear to vote Green all Green and nothing but Green so help them Mother Earth. What is the Liberal core, and really how can either of the other two (the Greens are actually rather right when it comes to social policy but we’ll play the perception here) ever expect to match the one recognized haven for the socially conservative vote, especially given that despite enacted policy the Conservative Party also manages to cling to the illusion of fiscal conservativism?

I think, and I could be wrong here, we’ll find out on Saturday and we’ll confirm at the next election, but I think that the Conservatives have created a Liberal base where the Liberals could not. This is the postmodern world – Mr. Ignatieff has been called the first postmodern party leader and now I think we are going to see the emergence of the first party base defined by negatives. What this rejuvenated Liberal base will be defined by is what they are not.

I am not suggesting that the entirety of the crowd at each of the rallies occurring this weekend are going to be made up of Liberal supporters, my guess though is that the majority of them are. If this is the case the size and breadth (the list of cities reads like a Stomping Tom Connors song) of the rallies should be seen as far more meaningful than the Conservatives are going to suggest. I believe that much of the anti-prorogation movement is disgust with Harper taking the guise of this one issue. This is the capper, the straw that broke the camel’s back, it isn’t the whole load that our Prime Minister embodies. Now streaming off of the crippled camel’s back and out into the streets are the generation of Liberal supporters who do vote Liberal because there is no better choice.

That’s how Stephen got into power in the first place of course. The Liberals were corrupt and Canada was certainly not ready for the NDP (we can’t wrap our heads around a multiparty system, hell we still don’t believe in strategic voting). Now though, the fact of the matter is becoming more and more clear, the Liberals were and are seen as the de facto ruling party of Canada precisely because they try to cater to the many, because their policies are wish-washy because the things Canadians have most in common are negatives. The tastes and cultures in this country are so diverse as to make a zoo seem tame. The majority of our plethoric citizenry are together though against inaction on torture issues, we are together against inaction on climate change and we are together when it comes to government accountability.

Prime Minister Harper has demonstrated time and time again that he is not interested in anything but power. So that coming together against previous Liberal corruption is about to be overshadowed as the populace plays watchdog once again. Now, on this issue, it has become all too clear that the lip service Harper had been paying democracy has been exposed. Canadians are not having any more of it.

Or maybe I’ll be the only one in the streets on Saturday.

Quick Update: due to my poor editing and Wordpress formatting skills this post did not make it up before the Saturday rallies. I am able to tell you that indeed I was not the only one in the streets.

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Tags: antiprorogation rallies, Conservative Party, Liberal Party, postmodernism, prorogue, stephen harper

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Activism, Federal Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.