Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion won't stoop to mudslinging and negativity:

"It's a very Bush style," he said with reference to U.S. President George W. Bush. "I will fight back, but not in negativity." - Stephane Dion (Montreal Gazette, March 31, 2007)

"I want to take the high road. I want to explain to Canadians what I want to do. Don't want to go in dirty politics. If [Prime Minister Stephen Harper] wants to play the bully, it will be his choice. I want to play the high road. I want to appeal to the intelligence of the Canadian people that I know is the best way to win the support of the Canadian people." - Stephane Dion (Mike Duffy Live, CTV Newsnet, March 8, 2007)

So are the Liberals taking a different approach now? Is negativity the new Liberal Party strategy? I guess we can ask a Liberal for his opinion, How about Garth Turner? He always has opinions:

The Mulroney pant is one example. Allegations he accepted $300,000 from a shady German businessman have been all mixed up with the Airbus affair, in which he was found blameless. Timelines have been blurred, facts blunted and motives impugned. If the former PM did over an associate in a private deal after he left office, then how is that the business of the state, or its Parliament?

But that’s not the point. I’m not here to defend Brian Mulroney. He’s got killer lawyers. They can do it.

Rather the belief by some of my colleagues, and by senior Liberal warhorses, that going after a former Conservative prime minister is good politics, is very disappointing. It does nothing for Canada, for the problems of our citizens, or to build a better country for the young. It’s merely intended to do damage to the enemy. The politics of negativity.

The politics of negativity? But Stephane Dion said negativity isn't his style.

I'm confused.

Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion says he won't fight back with negativity.

But Liberal MP Garth Turner says that the Liberal Party leadership has decided to pursue the politics of negativity very aggressively.

You know, it's this sort of contradiction that used to cause those computers and probes on the original Star Trek series to blow themselves up. Fortunately, the Canadian voter doesn't blow up in the face of Liberal Party contradictions. He or she can just decide to vote Conservative when the next election rolls around.

In the mean time, I wonder just how fellow caucus members in the Liberal Party feel about Garth Turner's comments that their latest attacks against the Conservatives serve no useful purpose, don't help the country, and are frankly about an issue that is none of their business?

Worse yet, that Garth Turner suggests that his fellow Liberals are engaged in an effort, unsupported by the known facts, to impugn the good name of a former public figure for political gain?

I bet they aren't too pleased.

Watch Garth Turner as he is engrossed by the papers on his desk even as the Liberals around him clap and cheer Liberal MP Robert Thibault's demand that the government investigate Brian Mulroney.

Addendum: To be fair to Garth Turner, he's trying to make the best of a bad situation. Unable to function within the discipline of the Conservative Party (and with some policy differences that he was unwilling to accept) he left, or was forced to leave. He sits as an independent, and tries to serve his constituents. Seeing the limitations of his new position, he jumps to the Liberals. We're not negative. We respect the diversity of opinion. Well, in reverse order, diversity of opinion has turned into chaos. Leaks and innuendo are foreshadowing a full-scale revolt against Stephane Dion. And the negativity thing? Please. This is politics. And the Liberals are the masters of negativity. Remember the gun-in-the-face ad? Remember the military ad? The Liberals are not out to promote a vision of Canada, because they don't have one. They only want power, and if dredging up the Brian Mulroney thing might lead to power, then dredge away. Perhaps Garth Turner really is an idealist. He is certainly sounding like someone who has just realized he might have made a terrible mistake.

I don't take enjoyment in that. I've been there. It's not a good feeling, especially when the mistake could affect your ability to take care of yourself and your family. I encourage him to look beyond the Brian Mulroney nonsense at the Liberal Party as a whole. Who is running the place? Who is likely to be running the place in six months? Is that going to be an improvement? Are those people going to remember Garth Turner the Conservative? Maybe Garth Turner needs to think long and hard about his place in politics. Because the people I suspect will be taking over the shattered remains of the Liberal Party are not going to think twice about purging the party of malcontents and free-thinkers if just to put out the message that the chaos of the Dion interrregnum is a thing of the past.