Alliance, Tories close to unite-right deal

OTTAWA - A deal to unite the country's two federal right-wing parties is very close, Alliance Leader Stephen Harper said on Wednesday.

Stephen Harper "I do think that we are approaching something that's very historic," Harper said. "It's not often that the political landscape is altered in a big way so quickly, but I think we're very close to doing that."

The Progressive Conservative caucus held a conference call on Wednesday morning and were told a deal was in the works.

Tory Leader Peter MacKay discussed the issue with Harper on Tuesday and they reportedly made great strides toward reaching a deal.

On Wednesday, Harper cancelled a town hall meeting scheduled in Calgary to fly back to Ottawa. He spoke to reporters at the Calgary airport, saying that uniting with the Tories has been a goal of the Alliance since it was formed in March 2000.

"We've done what we planned to do all along," he said. "We'll see if we get the results we want."

MacKay also boarded a plane headed for the capital from Halifax. He is expected to meet with Harper later Wednesday.

The Alliance has also called a caucus meeting for Sunday. All the parties normally hold caucus meetings on Wednesdays while the House is sitting.

Both sides wanted to get a deal done by Thanksgiving to allow time to get ready for the next federal election, expected next year.

If a deal is announced, it's expected both parties will have until some time in December to ratify it.

Talks about merging the two parties went on during the summer, but appeared to have broken down a week ago, with a fair amount of bitterness on both sides.

Now, the CBC's Jennifer Ditchburn says names of potential leaders of the new, united party are floating around the halls of Parliament.

How the leader of a merged party would be chosen has been an obstacle in unite-the-right talks.

Sources have indicated that the Tories have won concessions from the Alliance on the leadership question, getting agreement on a method that gives each riding association equal say in the election. The Tories used it in 1998 when they chose Joe Clark.

The idea of a merger has the support of a sizeable and vocal portion of the Tory membership. Party executives have received numerous phone calls and e-mails from members encouraging the talks.

But the segment of the party that supported David Orchard's leadership bid is dead set against it. They represent about one-quarter of the party membership.

MacKay secured Orchard's support at the leadership convention by agreeing not to seek a merger with the Alliance.

If the united right can come up with a believable leader, Ontario(ex-TO) may turf the Liberals in the next election.

Bets are for former Tory Ontario Premier Mike Harris to come out the leader. I ran in to him earlier this year at the Support America rally in Toronto and he definately even at that time looked like a man surveying the landscape. Harris CAN swing Ontario and would probably be looked upon favorably by Western Canada. He's relatively young and has a proven record. Eves lost to the Liberals to a large degree because voters felt he had no real conservative principles and was seeming to step away from the Common Sense Revolution of the Harris years. he's the most credible challenger that can get a national following, IMO.

The Conservatives collapsed at the end of the Mulroney era, and lost almost all their seats. A separate conservative party out of the west emerged called the Reform Party, later renamed the Canadian Alliance. The Progressive Conservatives were conservative, with some more Liberal stances on certain issues, but overall, a Tory party.

Since then they have been splitting the vote in every election, some feeling the Alliance is too right, and the conservatives not right wing enough. The Liberals have been taking advantage of this split for the last decade, winning majority govt's the last three elections on the trot, with no real competition.

Should this go throught, with Mike Harris at the helm, Canada could finally get a Conservative ruling party again.

The cycle is almost complete. Stephen Harper appears to have acccomplished what Preston Manning was never able to do: Sell the soul of his party for a shot at the Golden Ring.

It would appear all of the concessions made here were by the Alliance, and if approved, some amalgam known as the 'Conservative Party' will enter the Canadian political scene as another also-ran brokerage party hell bent on appeasing Ontario.

You can see it already with the comments on this site about having to win Ontario, and picking a leader that appeals to Ontario, blah,blah,blah.

Congrats Harper. Your betrayal of Western Canadian Conservatives is nearly complete. Soon you will be out of a job as Mike Harris will be busy selling out the party to Bay Street and Mulroney conservatism will be back in full force.

Nice work. Oh well, it doesn't matter anyways. The spectre of the Alliance as a part of this 'Conservative Party' will be enough to guarantee Liberals power for four more years anyway.

Canada=Ontario.

When will Western Canadians ever learn?

"Explain the need to me of the parties to unite. You have a parlaimentary system. Why can't the PCs do well where they do well, the Alliance do well in the west, and then form a coalition government. I don't see how uniting helps them get over the 50% mark combined. "

It's amazing how this kind of clarity can be found outside of the Canadian political sphere, but not amongst the elites who run the country. This is exactly the point, and I believe that had both parties contested all 301 ridings (or whatever the revised total is) the Alliance were only one election away from truly uniting the right in this nation.

Had the Alliance held on for one more election, ran 301+ candidates, and been happy to settle for winning back their traditional base of support, there is no question in my mind the Progressive Conservative party, who are neither progressive or conservative, would have been decimated by Martin's Liberals and the NDP.

The Alliance would be without a doubt the only Conservative Party in Canada, and indeed the only one with official party status. They would have been dealing from a position of power, and could enter the subsequent election as the only alternative while remaining true to their principles, and not having diluted them to appease the old central Canadian conservative elite.

At this point the onus would have been on the Canadian people: Either they would want a real alternative, regardless of where it originated, or they would choose the status quo.

At this point it would be made crystal clear to Westerners where they stood: Either REAL CHANGE would have been made by an Alliance government that had remained true to it's principles, or the more likely scenario, Westerners would be given a resounding indication as to where they stand in this country, and the process of splitting the Canadian Confederation in two could begin 30 years too late.

However, this process has never been about change. It is about duelling elites. The Old Guard in the East who lost the power and the New Guard in the West who want it.

In the minds of the PC 's and the Alliance, a Coalition wasn't workable simply because neither would settle for anything but a chance at sitting in the Prime Minister's Chair. With both groups under one umbrella, "The Conservative Party", now the infighting can continue behind closed doors, with the Alliance having to sacrifice the most to a party 1/3 of their size and who had no hope of gaining ground next election in a last vain attempt at gaining power at any and all cost.

There is no question the PC's now have the upper hand, and with Mike Harris the odds-on favorite to ascend to the leaders position, the transformation is complete back to politics a la 1986 is complete. Western populism and any chance of achieving governmental or parliamentary or senate reform is dead, as the eastern conservatives will once again usurp the ruling elites, and besides, "It won't be acceptable to Ontario".

"The West Wants In" was the mantra for the Reform Party when it came in to being in 1987. 16 years later, the West is no further in than it ever was.

Perhaps all of this was inevitable, but when the next schism between east and west occurs, and it will, I pray we will have the forsight and resolve to follow a leader who will not lead us down the garden path like Manning and now Harper have done. Present us with a leader who believes the West wants out, and many will follow.

Explain the need to me of the parties to unite. You have a parlaimentary system. Why can't the PCs do well where they do well, the Alliance do well in the west, and then form a coalition government.

That makes sense in theory but in practise I don't think the Alliance and the PCs could agree on what seats to concentrate on to come up with a good comparitive advantage formula.

In the end it all goes back to the individual "riding" level of every voting region. And incumbent politicians might have had to give up their seats for a 'greater good' - unlikely... Also, many voters are sentimentally attached to 'their' party and won't vote for another rightwing party unless they have no choice. For some time the Tories thought they were fighting to stay alive and the Alliance thought they could easily destroy the PCs. That wasn't condusive to any kind of agreement.

Now it's happened. I'm surprised and wonder whether it will work. And what happens to the Red Tories? Will they split off? Or join the Libs or NDP?

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