The Manning Factor

In a December 16th article in the Globe and Mail, Preston Manning warned that "Western Canadian alienation will be inflamed to dangerous levels if a Liberal government is re-elected."

As a Western Canadian myself, I believe we are mature enough out here to endure the whims of democracy without throwing tantrums. Aside from the slighting of our maturity, I am surprised Mr. Manning faults voters elsewhere for the Liberal's string of electoral successes. He is far too modest. He, after all, was a chief architect of those successes.

From 1984 to 1993, we had a Conservative government in Ottawa that was quite attentive to the West, particularly to Alberta. For example, it terminated Trudeau's despised National Energy Program and always had strong minsters to represent this province's interests, such as Don Mazankowski from Vegreville and Harvie Andre from Calgary. If Mr. Manning didn't agree with that government's direction, he could have joined the Conservative Party -- he is a conservative, after all -- and applied his legendary charisma to elbow it in the direction he wanted it to go. But no, he had to have a party all his own. He established the Reform Party, a political entity so far from the Canadian mainstream it never had a hope in hell of forming a government. It did manage, however, to fracture the conservative movement so severely it hasn't yet recovered.

The Liberals have dined sumptuously on conservative confusion ever since. And it was Mr. Manning, as much as anyone, who set the table.