Listening for the sounds from political sandboxes - Opinion

SMELL is supposed to be the most powerful and evocative of human senses. For the sub-species of human known as political observers, sound serves that purpose.

Anyone who has covered federal political wars of the past two decades need only hear Pierre Trudeau’s nasal tones to close his eyes and conjure up the image of the tough-guy leader dismissing critics with a defiant wave of his arm, or imposing his constitutional vision on a nation.

An audio clip of Brian Mulroney’s rumbling baritone quickly brings a flashback of the unctuous leader taking off his glasses to tell another one.

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Then came Preston Manning, with his once-in-a-generation voice that warned the nation in 1992 to vote against “the Mulruuuuuney deal” when the Charlottetown Accord was put to a vote.

These are among the archival voice clips that define a tumultuous period in Canadian politics. Joe Clark’s “ho ho ho” has a place but like the man’s career, it does not conjure up memories of history-shaping moments.

So what is the sound-attuned political junkie to make of the noises emanating from the porridge of Canadian politics? To recap, last year’s election produced a Parliament with a strengthened Liberal government and a splintered opposition – a slightly strengthened Canadian Alliance flanked by weakened Bloc Québecois, New Democratic Party and Progressive Conservative caucuses.

Nine months later, the opposition four have become sort of five as 12 dissident Alliance MPs try to be recognized as the Democratic Representative Caucus.

There are questions. How democratic are they, elected as X and unilaterally declaring themselves Y without consulting their voters? How representative are they, since they have not asked their voters for endorsement? Will they become a recognized caucus in Parliament, if they insist they still are Alliance members?

More amazing for the politics-as-the-sound-of-voices school is the emerging alliance of convenience between Mulroney and Manning.

They share a dislike of Alliance leader Stockwell Day, but so what? Polls suggest the vast majority of Canadians do too.

So they are going one step further, in a Churchillian way. The enemy of their enemy is their friend.

Both Mulroney and Manning have endorsed attempts at a confusing coalition between the tiny parliamentary band of Tories and the Alliance dissidents.

In their political sandbox, these 24 MPs are willing to co-operate in the House of Commons but not to be seen as political blood brothers.

No sir, these green Alliance members are not being sucked into the blue vortex of the Tories, nor are the Tories becoming one with these folks who almost destroyed the party in 1993.

Mulroney and Manning have not yet appeared on a platform together to promote the Progressive Representative Democratic Conservative Caucus but who knows how far these used-to-be leaders will go?

A high-pitched, reedy-yet-baritone voice proclaiming the virtues of a New Conseeeervative party is not a sound bite by which many would want to remember this era. Spare us.