So this happened a couple of weeks ago:
Canada officially has a PPC Party! In real life!
I’m mildly annoyed that we still haven’t reached the introduction to Uprising’s wimpy-left Prime Minister Jack Hemp (yes really) and his wishy washy ‘Progressive Party of Canada.’ Although I don’t know how much comedic value this event might have, given that Maxime Bernier is much further to the right on the spectrum.
This is something’s that’s happened a couple of times on the right of the Canadian political scene over the last few decades, though you’d have to go back to the 1930s or ’40s to find a comparable time on the left. Generally speaking, the left of the Canadian spectrum is dominated by the Liberals (centre left, but very comfortable with big business), the NDP (New Democratic Party, further left pro-union party) and the relatively recent Green Party (similar to NDP but with much greater emphasis on environmentalism)[1].
On the right though, the tendency over the last few decades seems to be for a new party to form, and fight with the dominant party before merging. Our long standing right wing party has been the Progressive Conservative Party (the Tories, a centre-right party who’s power base was largely in central Canada and Quebec) although there wasn’t enough comedic value wrung out the fact that our right wing party were the PCs. Over the last thirty or so years, we’ve seen the emergence of the Reform Party, a somewhat more rightwing party with a power centre out west.
After a brutal election in which the PCs were reduced to two seats in Parliament, and a few others where the Reform Party failed to break out of their stronghold in the west, a movement sprung up to “unite the right!” and the two parties came together.
There was one brief shining moment when, for a few hours, Canada actually saw the formation of the ‘Conservative-Reform Alliance Party.[2]’ But that got changed pretty quickly to the Alliance Party, followed a few years later with the dismaying decision to change their name again to the current ‘Conservative Party.’
Stephen Harper was our first and only Conservative Party Prime Minister, but he stepped down as party leader following his defeat by our current PM Justin Trudeau. This touched off a surprisingly contentious leadership race within the Party. Andrew Scheer won that contest, and he will be challenging Trudeau in the election next year. But it seems that runner up Maxime Bernier isn’t happy with the outcome, hence his decision to leave the Conservatives, to form the People’s Party of Canada.
Okay then, that’s a quick peek at Canadian politics. Nail-biting stuff as you can see. The main thing to take away from this (other than the frustrating fact that we got a PPC party that’s the exact opposite of Bland’s PPC party) is that the Canadian right wing is likely to be split during the next election. Whether this will guarantee Trudeau’s Liberal Party another win or whether this split will be offset by a similar split on the left with the NDP remains to be seen. But it’s making for some interesting developments for political junkies across the country.
The other concern that’s been raised is that Bernier’s PPC party looks to be making immigration and refugees to be a central plank of their party platform. While that’s certainly a legitimate topic for discussion, some of the early language that’s been used suggests that the PPCs may be embracing some of the uglier forms of populism that we’re seeing right now south of the border. Contrary to the image we’d like to project, Canada does have its share of racists weirdos in this country[3]. Whatever his intentions Maxime Bernier’s going to have to work overtime to assemble a full roster of candidates while at the same time weeding out the fringe types.
So this whole thing could just be a flash in the pan. Or it could be another chapter in the caduceus-like evolution of the Canadian right. Or it might be the start of something seriously sketchy. The only thing I can say for sure is that it’s definitely nothing like Bland’s PPC party, and the fact that it’s birth couldn’t be synched up with this blog’s schedule is mildly disappointing to me.
Okay I apologize for this latest tangent. Hopefully we can get back to the deconstruction shortly.
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[1] The Federal and Provincial separatist parties (the Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois) are progressive left for many issues, but are based around an ethno nationalism that’s had them take on some rather conservative stances.
[2] Comedians everywhere were wailing and gnashing their teeth. I mean, how on earth do you compete with the C.R.A.P. party?
[3] This whole blog exists because of one particular racist weirdo.
Putting Down Uprising 