The Toronto Star has an article today about new right-wing union between the soon-to-be-former PC and Alliance parties. The new group’s name will be the “Conservative Party of Canada”.
I suspect that this may be a mistake on the part of the PCs. MacKay, the PC leader, got his position this summer by cutting a deal with David Orchard, an organic farmer from Saskatchewan and possibly the truest thing to a real progressive conservative we’ve seen at the federal level for some time. “The Orchard Threat” got a lot of play with the die-hard blue Tories because he opposed a number of conservative causes — such as NAFTA — and because he seemed to have a great deal of success in recruiting new members for the party… members who supported his viewpoints on certain issues. Brisson made a pact with Orchard that included a provision saying that the PCs would not merge with the far-right Alliance. Well, so much for that plan.
Personally, I’m curious to see what Orchard does next. His personal viewpoint isn’t entirely incompatible with the NDPs or Greens, so he might join one of them. For that matter, now that the name “Progressive” has been released in federal politics, so it’s not inconceivable that he might try and splinter the new-minted party. Of course, the losers in all this are Orchard’s supporters.
The Conservative platform reads very well, but it’s more or less content-free at the moment. Essentially, it says “we support good things”, but — since the name Mike Harris (the former premiere of Ontario, not the curler) has been bruited about as a potential leader for the united party — I think I’ll believe it when I see it.