Unite-the-right effort succeeds as Tories vote to merge with Alliance

Canadian Press ^ | December 6, 2003 | Alexander Panetta

[Squawk 8888]

Ottawa -- The Progressive Conservative party approved a merger with the Canadian Alliance on Saturday, clearing the final hurdle in a marathon effort to unite the right.

Tory delegates voted 90 per cent in favour of merging with the Alliance to form a new Conservative Party of Canada in time to challenge the powerful Liberals in an expected spring election.

“With this overwhelming vote, we have just become (Liberal Leader) Paul Martin’s worst nightmare,” said a jubilant Peter MacKay, the Tory leader.

“Finally, after 10 years, the Liberal Party of Canada will be facing a united, strong conservative family in the next federal general election.”

The vote came a day after Alliance members voted 96 per cent in favour of merger.

The merger is an attempt to halt a decade of vote-splitting among conservatives that helped the Liberals cruise to three successive electoral triumphs.

Vote-splitting began in Conservative ranks after former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s coast-to-coast coalition began crumbling during the bitter constitutional debates of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Western-based staunch conservatives abandoned the Tories to throw their support behind the upstart Reform party, while Quebec nationalists flocked to the Bloc Quebecois.

Several subsequent attempts at reuniting the parties have met with spectacular failure, including the process that led to the creation of the Alliance.

Members had attempted to merge the Reform party and the Tories for the 2000 election but the vast majority of Conservatives never came onside.

A main sticking point has been the ideological gulf between the Alliance and the more socially progressive Tories.

The Alliance was hobbled by perceptions it was too right-wing to lead the country and seen as hostile to Quebec nationalists and many Atlantic Canadians.

That has some Tories fearing the merger will fail if they, too, are tainted by such perceptions.

Many critics have questioned the logic of a united right, saying most Tory voters prefer the more moderate Liberals as their second choice instead of the Alliance.

That has some Red Tories predicting an exodus to the Liberals and yet another crushing landslide in the election anticipated next spring.

The latest polls suggested a united right-wing party could place third behind the NDP.

In 2000, the Alliance managed to elect only two MPs east of Manitoba -- both in Ontario -- and the Liberals romped to another election victory, boosting their seat total to 172 from 155 in 1997.

If all Tory and Alliance MPs back the merger, it will bring the united party’s seat count in the House of Commons to 78, compared to 170 for the Liberals. But some of the 15 Tory MPs have suggested they will sit as independents rather than join the new entity.

[Beck_isright]

Isn't that akin to Bulgaria declaring an alliance with the Nazis when they saw the Soviets coming? I mean, too little, too late? I hope the conservatives succeed. If they do not, we will have a large welfare state to our north that we will have to defend from enemies abroad and within.

[headsonpikes]

To paraphrase Churchill, it's the end of the beginning, at least.

Whew! I'm glad that socialist Trojan-horse Orchard was stymied!

[Timesink]

So when all is said and done, does the new Tory Party have a snowball's chance in Nunavut of actually winning next year? Or even producing a meaningful opposition?

(As a sidenote, I find it so amusing that Mac OS X's built-in spellcheck actually knows "Nunavut".)

[mitchbert]

YES!

[expatpat]

Good! Surely, Canada is ready for a change after all these years of socialist nincompoops.

[68skylark]

Good post -- I hope this new party is successful. That would be in the interests of the US, as well as the Canadan people.

[Allan]

So when all is said and done
does the new Tory Party have a snowball's chance in Nunavut
of actually winning next year?

No. The last I heard support for the new party was about 20%

Canadians love to obey
and love to have a government that tells them what to think and do.

They will have socialists forever.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

You already have a large welfare state to the north. Has been for well over a decade. What we need to hope for is that the conservative coalition can win elections for a generation or so to roll back the Soviet-style social programs that already consume Canada.

Otherwise, the only answer is for the Canadian west to break off and join the U.S.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Maybe we can do a trade. We get British Columbia and Canada can have the North East. Works for me.

[Between the Lines]

Unite the Right Bump!

[GeronL]

The red Tories are such pansies, they think they're the conservative party?? hahahaha... the Alliance has 63 seats and the Tories have but 15...

But those 'conservative' in Name only guys, like RINO's, would stay a permanent minority than actually represent the people of Canada.

[GeronL]

The new Conservative Party will win much more seats than the 15 that the Red Tories hold now.

[GeronL]

Yup, lets trade. Too bad to stick New Hampshire with that lot.

[GiveEmDubya]

Some of us in the Northeast like being Americans!

[reg45]

Too bad to stick New Hampshire with that lot.

Could we trade NH, VT, ME and MA for BC, AB, SK and MB!

[reg45]

Some of us in the Northeast like being Americans!It's sadly ironic to see "The Cradle of the Revolution" (Massachusetts) voting so Canadian.

Hey! What's the gripe. I didn't offer to trade New York.

[reg45]

Oops! I left out a tag!

Some of us in the Northeast like being Americans!

It's sadly ironic to see "The Cradle of the Revolution" (Massachusetts) voting so Canadian.

Hey! What's the gripe. I didn't offer to trade New York.

[GiveEmDubya]

The gripe is twofold:

1) I am more than 90% sure I will be going to college in New England.

2) I have the intention of living in New Hampshire after college. The Granite State, the state of Live Free or Die, is still conservative. Don't mean to offend any of our northern conservative friends, but it's almost as if NH is too good for the socialist mecca that Canada has become.

Why am I getting so worked up, it's not like we can actually just trade the states off like baseball cards anyway ;)

[McGavin999]

Now if they can get seriously behind a united message, they could well accomplish something. The disgraceful treatment of the military would be a starting point. The embarrassing way the liberals have handled foreign affairs would be another.