PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – By the final week of the election campaign, the Reform party and leader Preston Manning had become the favorite targets of all their opponents.
“Preston Manning and Reform represent the old West,” Liberal natural resources minister and Edmonton candidate Anne McLellan said May 26 in a televised address. “Preston Manning does not understand the new West.”
Meanwhile, Conservative leader Jean Charest and New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough used weekend speeches to accuse Reform of sowing seeds of Canadian disunity by not accepting a constitutional “distinct society” recognition for Quebec.
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By all appearances, Manning and his handlers are enjoying the attention. They consider it a sign this upstart western party is setting the campaign agenda.
At a noisy Reform rally in Portage May 23, Manning stuck to his campaign themes – balanced books, tax cuts, tougher justice, no gun registration laws and a national unity policy giving all provinces more powers but treating them equally.
Ability to fire MPs
Oh yes, and if MPs in a Reform government do not serve their constituents faithfully, they can be recalled.
He was folksy, describing Canada as a “magnificent house with many rooms.”
He was fiery. “It is time to take back your streets, take back your political system and take back your country.”
While this was going on, Reform promoters like strategist Rick Anderson and media handler Ron Wood were working over the reporters in the crowd, spinning tales of unofficial polls showing the party leading in some Ontario ridings and competitive in Maritime pockets.
Back on stage, Reform campaign chair Cliff Fryers was waxing extravagant. “He is a leader unlike any we have seen in Canada for a very long time.”
His critics, who consider Manning reckless in his Quebec comments and heartless in his spending proposals, could agree with Fryers’ comments, if not their intent.
But they also concede this time, more than in 1993, Manning has helped define national campaign themes.
During the televised leaders’ debates, he badgered prime minister Jean ChrŽtien about jobs.
On national unity, he stood apart by suggesting Quebec be given more powers, but no more than other provinces, and by insisting that Quebeckers be told the hard-line position that Canada would take into a negotiation over separation.
Charest accused Manning of conceding Canada’s breakup.
Unrepentant, Manning suggested national unity is too important to be decided by Quebec-based federal politicians like ChrŽtien and Charest negotiating with Quebec-based separatists.
“Ontario, the Maritimes, the West wants in (on the debate),” he told the Portage rally.
In the campaign’s final days, Reform advisers thought the tough unity talk was turning out to be the strongest election card, both in the West and in vote-rich Ontario.
