Right defined
Preston Manning continues his campaign to form a coalition of the right.
Since my favorite reading is the dictionary, I checked to see the alternatives available under this form of political alignment.
I found right could mean straight, in accordance with truth, justice or law, ethically good or righteous, most convenient, satisfactory, in certain legislative bodies the Conservative party, or in the case of whales, a species with an exceptional amount of whalebone and oil.
Manning’s Reform Party has been reforming throughout its existence. Now that it is Official Opposition in the House of Commons some of its loose guns have been lashed to the deck or dumped overboard in an effort to achieve respectability.
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Its original stated objective to raise the level of debate in the Commons has been put aside to the point today’s rhetoric is similar to what prevailed over the last 50 years.
Politically, this may be the right thing to do. Perhaps a little more whalebone and oil is indicated if the party is to gain a toehold in Toronto.
If the Progressive Conservative Party is to survive in any meaningful way it will have to do something dramatic to regain any ground. Its only hope is to reform, with a small r. Reform is “to make better by removal of faults or abuses.”
Since Manning insists his party is the party of the right that means the Conservatives have to be the party of the righter or the not quite right, otherwise they’re stuck with the big-r Reform.
A coalition of the right may or may not be in the cards but it continues as a whale of an issue for Canadian politics.
