Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest claims to be: a politician with big dreams; a national leader; a man who likes big challenges.
When he traveled west last week to raise money and profile for the Tories, only one of those three seemed on display – the challenge. For a party which owned a good chunk of western Canadian political loyalty for almost four decades, the task of rebuilding west of Ontario seems daunting if not impossible.
Nine years ago, the West gave the Tories 47 seats and the majority which allowed approval of the free-trade deal.
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In 1997, the Tories won one seat (Brandon-Souris) and collected just 11 percent of western votes cast.
The Reform party has taken over most of their ground. In British Columbia, support has fallen almost off the register and in Saskatchewan, fumigating the political system to get rid of the stench of provincial Tory scandal has become a lucrative project for many of the province’s lawyers.
Even in Alberta and Manitoba, where provincial Conservatives govern, there is little evidence provincial success is a base upon which the federal party can build.
All this seemed to hover overhead one day last week as Charest dropped into Saskatoon to speak to the remnants of the party faithful – a handful of business people and former candidates at a mid-day speech.
In many ways, they did not get their money’s worth. Charest seemed tired, listless, devoid of passion or rallying cries. Response was tepid.
Big dreams and national presence?
Well, he proclaimed the party is on the way back with 20 seats in the Commons. He promised that despite poor support, the PCs will once again speak for the West. “We will be able to speak with a loud and clear voice on behalf of Western Canada,” he said.
But there was precious little evidence the declaration was anything more than words. Later, he conceded there are “special circumstances” in Saskatchewan (meaning there have been more Tories facing criminal charges than there are practicing representative politics) and he deferred any questions about the wheat board to his agriculture critic.
Charest clearly is unable to even guess at what western Canadians want to hear him say. In fact, there is little Charest can say that cannot be said more authentically by Reform on the right, the NDP on the left and the Liberals in the middle.
So what are Charest’s options as he tries to put flesh on his skeletal claim to be a national leader able to speak for the west?
Well, he could suddenly become a champion of an elected Senate, although the unelected Tory Senators who make up the majority of his parliamentary caucus might not be too enthusiastic.
He could try harder to find comfortable ground between Reform government cutters and the Liberals’ modest proposals to increase spending, although most of his caucus was elected in Atlantic Canada by voters who thought the Liberals had cut too much.
Or maybe he could cram a few lessons about prairie farm issues into his busy schedule. It would be a start.
