Editor, the Gauntlet,
I am a Conservative, but more appropriately a Reformer. I am not at all happy with what is happening with the CPC and what Stephen Harper is constrained to do to satisfy the red wing of the New Conservatives. At a recent CPC Christmas dinner I attended at the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, I noticed Stephen Harper’s body language as he left the room I was sitting in. He walked as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and the look on his face was not that of a man happy with the burden he is bearing. I know he is a blue conservative, but the leadership seems to be out of his hands. He appears to be leader in name only.
We have one of two choices to make. We can either ask that he make room for a stronger leader, but then that would open the door for a complete take over by the Red Tories and we would be back in the same shit we were in leading up to 1993, or we can let him know that we want him to lead us back on the blue Conservative track where the grass roots want to be, away from the compromises and away from pandering to the Quebec wing of the party who are most likely separatists and definitely left of centre, and who know which way the wind will blow during the next election.
For him to get us back on track, he would need the strong support and assurance of the great majority of the membership, that they are behind him for a change of course that will take us back to the values of a true conservative rather than the wishy washy, fence sitting, middle of the road, neither here nor there attitude that seems to have taken over the direction of the party via his apparent leadership. A true conservative stands for strong values and does not sway with the wind just to get votes because such votes are empty and most likely the foundation for threats and blackmail. The party does not have to be extremist to have strong values. It just has to state its policies and stick to them come hell or high water. And those who can’t take the heat don’t belong in this kitchen.
So, the revolution starts within the party, not to split it because we’ve been there already, but to clean it up and set it straight. That is grass roots democracy as opposed to Red Tory and Liberal Elite democracy.