The Liberals' real opponent

Susan Delacourt, in the Toronto Star, suggests that the Liberals will run a solidly anti-American campaign in the next federal election, ignoring Stephen Harper except to paint him as a tool of the Yanks. (Yeah, I'm shocked too. Maybe they'll keep an eye on Gerhard Schroeder's campaign for ideas.)

There are many possible reasons that the official Opposition has suddenly become an afterthought in the minds of Liberals. But perhaps it's because the governing party is seeing a bigger foe on the radar screen these days: the United States.

If there was any running theme to the Liberals' big summer gatherings in the West, it revolved around what seems to be a simmering antipathy to the U.S. Are Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals becoming anti-American?

Of course, much of the current invective stems from the incendiary U.S. decision this month to flout the NAFTA panel ruling in favour of Canada in the ongoing softwood lumber dispute. This has Liberals' blood boiling and there was no mistaking the anger radiating from all quarters and all levels in the government.

By yesterday, in fact, in reaction to provocative comments on the issue by U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, Liberal cabinet ministers were using words such as "bully" and "hypocrite" to talk about Canada's neighbour to the south.

But it's also true that the undercurrent of antipathy toward Americans appears to be rippling beyond trade and bubbling under other issues, too.

Liberal MPs who were seized with this summer's gun violence in Toronto, for instance, were murmuring darkly about the U.S. gun culture, not to mention its guns, finding its way into the peaceable Canadian kingdom.

Even the very domestic concern of the CBC labour dispute, which has thrown 5,500 journalists and technicians off the job, provoked a jab or two at the Americans. Heritage Minister Liza Frulla and Ottawa MP Marlene Catterall were talking about the need to protect the public broadcaster's future as a way to ensure that this country didn't end up with the broadcasting culture we see in the U.S.
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The "left" streak shows up, cynics say, around election time, when Liberals pull out the old tactic of running from the left and governing from the right. Thanks to the precarious state of this minority government and Martin's vow to hold an election in the coming year, the Liberals are in a perpetual state of election readiness. Hence, it could be argued that, for political reasons, the anti-American streak is being allowed to peek out a little more from government than it normally would.

At their election-preparation session at caucus this week, campaign chief David Herle told Liberal MPs that hopes of a majority rested partly on drawing away 5 to 6 per cent of the NDP vote. New Democrat voters, notoriously anti-American and currently highly opposed to George Bush's administration, may need a little reassurance from these Liberals that they share those views to a degree.

So what that means is that no one should be surprised to see Martin's Liberal party flexing a little anti-American muscle in the weeks and months ahead. They've done it on health care, they'll do it on guns and gay rights and trade — anything to tap into the vein of Canadianism that identifies this country by how not-American it is.

Oh, and that guy the Liberals seem to have forgotten? A Conservative politician who goes by the name of Harper? Watch for Martin and his Liberals to suddenly remember his name in this political context, as a politician who'd be far too cosy with the U.S. and its values — all those things that have Martin's Liberals suddenly talking as if public enemy number one at the moment is the United States.

Unfortunately, unless Stephen Harper takes time from the BBQ circuit to do something about this, it's probably going to work. Coming out strongly against the Bush Administration's indefensible decision on softwood lumber - a slap in the face to every Canadian who believes in free trade, including most Conservatives - would be a good start.

Posted by damian at August 27, 2005 11:59 AM | TrackBack