[doc30]

Part of the Liberals' plight rests on the fact they can no longer be all things to all Canadians and are no longer the natural party of power. They finally have to take a stand.

Do you think it's an issue of the plastic platform of the Liberal party, or do you think the electroate is becoming more polarized? In other words, are a good number of Liberal supporters drifting farther to the left, hence are more attracted to the NDP? If that is the case, the Tories will be in power for some time. Two parties splitting the left wing vote is good political news for the Tories. But are there also a number of more centrist Liberal supporters who are feeling abandoned by the Liberal leftward drift, much in the same way many centrist Democrats in the south feel the party is abandoning them?

[goldstategop]

In Canada, people joined the Liberals because it was a natural route to power and no one gave a great deal of thought to ideological questions. The party just straddled the language divides and brought prosperity and peace to central Canada, where fordecades it built its majorities. Those days are gone forever now and unless the Liberals build support in Western Canada and among rural and exurban voters, it has no future. So the Liberals have to decide what they want to be: a Lefty party in the tradition of the European Social Democrats? Or a centrist party like the German Free Democrats? Or do they want to be a Canadian national party in tradition of Laurier, King and Trudeau? Lots of questions to answer but when they know who they are, perhaps they will be back in government again. But not for the forseeable future.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")