One of the little-analyzed political indicators is the drool factor.
Sometimes it is a positive thing.
Forty five years ago, a relatively unknown Montreal intellectual, union activist, iconoclast and Leonard Cohen buddy Pierre Trudeau decided to run for the Liberal party leadership.
Among backroom party operatives and young (female) Liberals, drools all around.
It worked out OK because starting from June 25, 1968, the Liberals under Trudeau enjoyed 16 years in power.
Now, son Justin is being promoted as the next leader of the much-diminished Liberal Party.
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Again, for those who see the Liberal Party as a vehicle to power, drools all around. The name, the charisma, the political connections, the natural instincts, the star power.
This time, though, it probably is wasted. There is no indication yet of depth, ideas or any ability of Trudeau Jr. to rescue a party in dire straits.
Meanwhile, for enemies of the protectionist supply management system, last week was a week to enjoy a drool or two.
A confluence of events seems to indicate it is under attack.
After months of criticism and opponent campaigns, last week was the icing on the cake for the critics.
Influential former Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay produced an explosive report that called for the abolition of the supply management system.
The same day, new Ottawa policy think tank the Macdonald-Laurier Institute issued a scathing report calling supply management an attack on poor Canadians.
The same week, Canada was invited to join Pacific Rim trade talks that had supply management critics joyfully speculating that agreeing to negotiate an end to import tariffs, price setting and the bureaucracy of production controls had to be part of the deal.
Among the supply management-supporting crowd, there was fear that Conservatives had sold them out.
Among the anti-supply management crowd there was much drooling as the stars seemed to be aligning to finally get rid of the system that a critic in Ottawa last week called “the last dinosaur walking the earth.”
They should probably hold that thought.
For reasons beyond ideology, beyond politics, beyond electoral prospects, this Conservative government is unlikely to abandon supply management.
For reasons not entirely clear, the Conservatives have become the party of supply management — perhaps because they have decided it works, that the farmers who benefit from it are never a drain on government funds and those industries are stable.
Or maybe it is politics, a wish to regain some traction in Quebec.
Whatever it is, the critics who imagine that after the CWB, supply management is next have little to support their case.
Trade negotiations will be a challenge for the government.
Business lobbyists will continue to advocate for an end to protectionism in agriculture (ignoring what most other countries do).
Hall Findlay might even make the Liberal party less a predictable supply management supporter.
But at this point, there is not a shred of evidence the Conservatives are wavering.
Preston Manning, son of an Alberta premier and dairy farmer, must be shaking his head.
