Commentary

The Disintegrating Alliance

For the past several weeks we have witnessed the soap-opera self-destruction of the Canadian Alliance. If the current rate of defections continues, it is highly unlikely that anything will remain of the party by the scheduled time of its leadership review next April. A year ago, in an effort to "unite the right", political forces representing the conflicting economic interests of Alberta oil and Ontario manufacturing formed a tentative alliance to back Stockwell Day's bid to replace Preston Manning as leader of the Reform/Canadian Alliance. Alberta premier Ralph Klein, the Globe and Mail and the National Post openly endorsed Day, while Ontario premier Mike Harris lent his tacit support to Day. They claimed that Day had the ability to unite eastern and western conservatives and provide a viable alternative to the Liberals, something Preston Manning had failed to do. Interestingly, the movement to remove Stockwell Day as leader appears to have been initiated by these same forces.

The reason being given for the revolt within the Alliance is Day's inept leadership, but the real issue is that Day's brand of social conservatism proved unpalatable to Ontario voters in last year's federal election. As a result, it has become clear that a conservative alliance under Day's leadership does not represent a viable alternative to the Liberal Party.

The Alberta oil barons associated with Ralph Klein may have genuine contradictions with the Liberal Party, dating back to Trudeau's National Energy Policy, but the same cannot be said for the Ontario capitalists associated with Mike Harris. The Chretien Liberals have given them everything they have asked for. Jean Chretien makes regular trips peddling their wares. He has embraced neo-liberal free trade more enthusiastically even than Brian Mulroney. Liberal Finance Minister Paul Martin has made the tax cuts for corporations and for the rich that they demanded. What, then, is their interest in creating an alternative to the Liberal government?

The Canadian system of parliamentary democracy works on the basis of one party in power and another waiting in the wings to take power - the official opposition. When the party in power becomes discredited, the opposition party is ready to step in and take over. When there is no viable "party in waiting" (as has been the case in Canada since 1993), there is a significant danger that the electorate will become disillusioned with the entire charade and start looking for real alternatives. Thus, even though the capitalists of Central Canada already control the Liberal Party, they also want to create a viable opposition party which they also control. Now that the Canadian Alliance is disintegrating, they are looking once more to the Progressive Conservatives to carry the ball for them, even though they are not very enthusiastic about its current leader, Joe Clark.

The Canadian Alliance was a pragmatic experiment to rescue the Canadian electoral system based on wallpapering over the sharp economic contradictions between the Alberta oil capitalists and the Central Canadian manufacturers and finance capitalists. Attempts to revive the experiment under the leadership of Joe Clark or someone else are equally problematic. If that attempt also fails, as it likely will, then it should come as no surprise if the Globe and Mail and National Post become the most vocal advocates of some form of proportional representation in order to breathe legitimacy back into the discredited Canadian electoral system.