Expediency is not a Conservative Party of Canada value

Stephen Harper should step down Arthur Weinreb, May 21, 2005

[. . . . ] If Canada is ever to have a functioning multi-party democracy, Stephen Harper has to go. He simply lacks the skills necessary to win. And if he won’t step aside and truly thinks that he has what it takes to be the prime minister of Canada, perhaps he should try to win over Ontario by leaving his Alberta cocoon and running for a seat in that province in the next election. We hear the riding of Newmarket-Aurora is available. [. . . . ]

Mr. Weinreb, in a conservative party which actually practices democracy, this democracy entails less directing and controlling than what your article in its entirety suggests. I suspect Stephen Harper's appeal is more toward offering a position and the reasoning which supports it, then allowing the individual to either accept or reject it, and less toward making compromises and promises which happen to be expedient for the moment but which might have long-term negative consequences for Canada and for the party. Catering in order to gain momentary advantage through one high-profile caucus member is what Liberals and Paul Martin do best. I think we should wait for Canadians to make their own choices.

Expediency is not a Conservative Party of Canada value.

This article saddened me greatly. How do we keep a country together when the only parts that even writers like Mr. Weinreb think matter are in the Centre, that is, Ontario and Quebec?

If this continues, I can visualize Alberta becoming independent, along with any other provinces not of the Centre , peopled with citizens who wish to feel they count, and who obviously don't, in Canada.

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