Don’t we all hold hope?
by Kenneth Bagnell
One of history’s greatest men, Albert Schweitzer, said something that reminds me of Kellie Leitch’s approach to become the leader of the Conservative party: “The three most important ways to lead people,” Schweitzer once said, “is by example, example and example.” Stephen Harper is Leitch’s “example, example and example.” Her insistence on refusing anybody without “Canadians values” came back to me the other day when I read that Harper himself told an audience in India that, in today’s crisis: “There is no better person to quote than Mr. Donald Trump.” He quoted Trump saying “What the hell is going on?” We just got rid of what was going on in Canada by defeating Stephen Harper. Now we have to deal with a woman who, above all, is the political imitation of Harper. As the proverbial old man used to say: “go figure.”
Things can certainly change in political races. From the start of the campaign, Dr. Leitch, a medical specialist, revealed that she’s the most right wing of all the candidates, now about a dozen or more. In fact she has been, for some time the leader in the campaign. But I venture she will will only appeal to the remaining Harperites who, by now, have learned that the hard right is simply not for Canada. Leitch’s insensitivity, was clear very early in her campaign. She said not once, but twice, that she believed in the screening of refugees for “anti-Canadian values”. How can that be uncovered at the border? In any case, it’s presumptive and it’s invasive. (Admirably, Rona Ambrose the party’s able but temporary leader stepped in and had the courage to rebuke her.) No party, I suggest, wants Ms. Leitch’s Trump view.
To me, she deeply wounded her leadership candidacy, simply by expressing her admiration for Donald Trump, the man who gets the world into ever more deeper trouble. I venture that virtually every Canadian distains him as unworthy of the American Presidency. Dr. Leitch’s high respect for him, helped dig her political grave. Who was it who once said: “Sad to say, good doctors make poor politicians.” Worse still, the new and now leading contender for the post is Kevin O’Leary, the very closest we have to a Donald Trump. He’s a show off –- with lots of money. His style makes me think he wants to imitate Trump. I can hardly believe this has happened. His supporters must be the carnival crowd of politics. Even if you try hard can you possibly imagine how John Diefenbaker, Robert Stanfield, Joe Clarke and Brian Mulroney would feel about the level of his candidacy? For shame. Nonetheless, as I write, the Canadian Press claims: “Kevin O’ Leary is the far and away front-runner for the Conservative leader….” I can hardly believe it.
The obvious reason for this irrational decision is he’s a TV “celebrity.” So? That means absolutely nothing as a qualification for the demanding leadership of a major political party. His television role is just a level or two above the status of a bingo caller. His program’s title says enough: “Shark Tank,” which, as I’m told, is about turning $10,000 into a fortune. That nicely reveals his values. I don’t know him and I have no personal grudge against him. But I very much care about the intellectual credibility and ethical standards of a person seeking Opposition Leader or Prime Minister. To be brief: how do you feel toward a man who admits he is pleased to be called “Mr. Wonderful?” Pause for just one second and imagine my friend of years ago, Robert Stanfield, standing before you and saying “I am Mr. Wonderful.” (Are you now laughing or crying.) Truly, has the Conservative party gone off the edge?
To be frank I feel the current Conservative party is very well served by one person: its current leader, Rona Ambrose. She has been highly successful. In the debates she is insightful, incisive, but also gracious. She tends to what needs to be tended as in the incident a few months ago when she spoke of Dr. Leitch’s plan to screen immigrants’ for “anti-Canadian values.” (Other leadership candidates disagreed with her as did former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.) Still Leitch has maintained her confidence in the questionable policy of screening immigrants for “anti-Canadian values.”
The Conservative party will be well advised to give Ambrose permanent Conservative leadership. In fact, various surveys reveal the considerable confidence Canadians have in her. It’s been shown numerous times, one being in a poll published as recently as February 2 by Huffington Post, indicating that she’s at the top of the public approval list “if only she could run”. A skim of the polling says this: “Approvals of Rona Ambrose among Conservative supporters are impressive, by far the highest among all the contenders and possible contenders.” Unfortunately a hurdle is there: according to its constitution the conservative party leader cannot be a candidate in the leadership selection process. So to quote Huffington Post: “the best possible leader for the Tories is the one they can’t have.” I still hope for a policy change that will permit her to rise to leadership. So I lean on a long ago insight of the legendary British Prime Minister of the 1800’s, Benjamin Disraeli, who helped found the Conservative party: “I may be preparing for the worst, but I’m hoping for the best.”
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