Niagara Falls Review
Published: Thursday, April 1, 2010

Thinkers' conference could help revive Liberal party

With the Canada150 "ideas" conference from this past weekend now concluded, the focus for federal Liberals returns to the present foibles and future fortunes of their Leader, Michael Ignatieff. Specifically, can he actually use this event as a springboard to craft an election platform to challenge the Conservatives?

Unlike my Tory friends who understandably took every opportunity with their media interventions to try to illustrate the differences between them and the grits on files like a carbon tax or corporate tax relief, I will give credit where credit is due: The Liberals had the courage to invite respected speakers into their proverbial tent without preconditions on content to let 'er rip.

And rip they sure did, from former diplomat Bob Fowler lambasting both the Tories and Liberals on foreign policy to the former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge rightfully pleading for an "adult conversation" on health care and retirement security.

CEOs, respected academics, NGO leaders, former

bureaucrats, economists and labour leaders were among some 50-plus speakers of all partisan stripes (or no stripe whatsoever) who eloquently spoke to their issues in an attempt to shape future Liberal party policy. While I will never be mistaken for a card-carrying Liberal, it was a worthy exercise.

If Ignatieff swings for the fences and holds the Conservatives to account on their ambition for jobs for the future, deficit reduction targets and also incorporates the best and most relevant ideas arising out of the Canada150 exercise into a coherent and compelling election platform, then he can put the Liberals back on a competitive footing against the Tories in the next election.

However, if he shies away from the big issues such as health care, retirement income security, our economic prospects vis-a-vis the rest of the world and his party continues to chase the trivial headlines of the day as the Liberal's present question period strategy clearly reveals, then the elite and foreign halls of Harvard will beckon him shortly after the next election.

Finally, on a tactical level, what the Liberals did accomplish this past weekend was to take a definitive and deliberate step to bleed votes from the NDP and try to push Jack Layton down to support levels near 10%. Ignatieff's closing remarks Sunday committed his party to scrapping future Conservative corporate tax rate cuts which are slated to drop to 15% by 2017. This will no doubt appeal to left-of-centre voters including NDP partisans.

This courting of the left by the Ignatieff Liberals should be watched over the months to come. In this sense Canada150 was the first salvo in the next federal election campaign.