(courteousy of Al Gullon)
The "progressive conservative" legacy of Sir John A. Macdonald
"Sir John A's 'risen from the Dead!..
...to slap Stephen 'arper upside 'is 'ead."
Since the 2004 election media pundits have made much of Stephen Harper's sudden and mysterious modesty but without pointing out that the disastrous election results have left him with much to be modest about. Moreover, on the one point on which he has been less than modest since that election he is blatantly wrong. His frequent claim that the "new" Conservative Party (aka Reform III) is continuing in the legacy of Sir John A is at best a misreading of history... and at worst an outright lie.
On "Black Wednesday", October 15, 2003, with the surprise revelation of the Agreement in Principle, a new political party was born of an illicit liaison between senior officers of the "parent parties". Over the next two months they walked roughshod over and through the Constitution of the PC Party on their way to register the new-born during the weekend of December 6-7. On the official "birth certificate" issued by Elections Canada on that "Silly Sunday" the word "Progressive" was conspicuous by its absence.
Exactly 150 years previous to these "sorry events", and in stark contrast to their secret nature, the not-yet-Sir John A. Macdonald was very publicly wrestling with the faults and fissures in the policy platform of the"olde conservative party". In a February 9th, 1854 letter to a colleague*, he stated his conclusion that the future growth and development of Canada required that,
" … our aim should be to enlarge the bounds of our party so as to embrace every person desirous of being counted as a "progressive Conservative", and who will join in a series of measures to put an end to the corruption which has ruined the present government and debauched all its followers."
(*one Captain Strachan, in the National Archives, see extract on p.2)
Some nine months later Macdonald, although not yet Leader, was able to pull together a coalition of the less-radical liberals and the more-progressive conservatives into the MacNab-Morin government. Throughout the fall of 1854 that government enacted "a series of measures" which removed many of the "Conservative" privileges of the Seigneurs (in Quebec) and the Family Compact (in Ontario) and released the economic energy of the individual to begin to build the strong Canadian economy we know today. [George-Etienne Cartier participated in those measures and joined Macdonald in the Cabinet in early 1855.]
This progressive platform continued to characterize the Conservative party through Confederation and Canada's expansion to the Pacific and Arctic oceans. The addition of the adjective "Progressive" at the 1942 AGM was thus not, in fact, a policy change for the Party but a public proclamation of Macdonald’s progressive policies which have been maintained now for 150 years … and which the PC Party, re-registered as the "Progressive Canadian Party" [because Elections Canada rejected our application for "Progressive Conservative"], is determined to continue for the next 150 years!
In summary, Macdonald forged a coalition of progressive-minded citizens and, with them, enacted "progressive Conservative" policies which removed the elite's economic privileges in favour of "the little guy". In contrast Stephen Harper's new party drove away the more progressive members of the PC Party and now appears to be advocating a return to the "traditional conservative values" of 150 years ago which Macdonald had the wisdom to abandon. The illicitly born "new Conservative Party" has both repudiated his policies and reversed his actions and thus has no claim whatsoever to the legacy of Sir John A.
The "progressive conservative" legacy of Sir John A. Macdonald
"Sir John A's 'risen from the Dead!..
...to slap Stephen 'arper upside 'is 'ead."
Since the 2004 election media pundits have made much of Stephen Harper's sudden and mysterious modesty but without pointing out that the disastrous election results have left him with much to be modest about. Moreover, on the one point on which he has been less than modest since that election he is blatantly wrong. His frequent claim that the "new" Conservative Party (aka Reform III) is continuing in the legacy of Sir John A is at best a misreading of history... and at worst an outright lie.
On "Black Wednesday", October 15, 2003, with the surprise revelation of the Agreement in Principle, a new political party was born of an illicit liaison between senior officers of the "parent parties". Over the next two months they walked roughshod over and through the Constitution of the PC Party on their way to register the new-born during the weekend of December 6-7. On the official "birth certificate" issued by Elections Canada on that "Silly Sunday" the word "Progressive" was conspicuous by its absence.
Exactly 150 years previous to these "sorry events", and in stark contrast to their secret nature, the not-yet-Sir John A. Macdonald was very publicly wrestling with the faults and fissures in the policy platform of the"olde conservative party". In a February 9th, 1854 letter to a colleague*, he stated his conclusion that the future growth and development of Canada required that,
" … our aim should be to enlarge the bounds of our party so as to embrace every person desirous of being counted as a "progressive Conservative", and who will join in a series of measures to put an end to the corruption which has ruined the present government and debauched all its followers."
(*one Captain Strachan, in the National Archives, see extract on p.2)
Some nine months later Macdonald, although not yet Leader, was able to pull together a coalition of the less-radical liberals and the more-progressive conservatives into the MacNab-Morin government. Throughout the fall of 1854 that government enacted "a series of measures" which removed many of the "Conservative" privileges of the Seigneurs (in Quebec) and the Family Compact (in Ontario) and released the economic energy of the individual to begin to build the strong Canadian economy we know today. [George-Etienne Cartier participated in those measures and joined Macdonald in the Cabinet in early 1855.]
This progressive platform continued to characterize the Conservative party through Confederation and Canada's expansion to the Pacific and Arctic oceans. The addition of the adjective "Progressive" at the 1942 AGM was thus not, in fact, a policy change for the Party but a public proclamation of Macdonald’s progressive policies which have been maintained now for 150 years … and which the PC Party, re-registered as the "Progressive Canadian Party" [because Elections Canada rejected our application for "Progressive Conservative"], is determined to continue for the next 150 years!
In summary, Macdonald forged a coalition of progressive-minded citizens and, with them, enacted "progressive Conservative" policies which removed the elite's economic privileges in favour of "the little guy". In contrast Stephen Harper's new party drove away the more progressive members of the PC Party and now appears to be advocating a return to the "traditional conservative values" of 150 years ago which Macdonald had the wisdom to abandon. The illicitly born "new Conservative Party" has both repudiated his policies and reversed his actions and thus has no claim whatsoever to the legacy of Sir John A.
posted by TB at 2:23 AM
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