Rona Ambrose Elected Tory Interim Leader

[ToadBrother]

The next Tory permanent leader will probably be a male, former Alliance member because Harper 's Alliance members wouldn't want the party to go back to the PC.

As much as I enjoy the agonies of the post-defeat Tories (they having so richly deserved where they are), in reality, how many of the Reform old guard are even left now? People talk a lot about the number of new faces in the Liberal caucus, but there are a lot of new faces in the Tory caucus as well, and I'm not seeing a lot of evidence that many are Rob Anders and James Lunney clones. In reality, the party was already most of the ways back to a Red Tory party, with the social conservatives sidelined, and in some cases basically shown the door in nomination battles, if they even tried to fight them at all.

The CPC, out of sheer necessity, is going to be a "reddish" Tory party by 2019. The Liberals will take care of the files most egregious to the few remaining hard right social conservatives; doctor-assisted suicide, Prostitution 3.0, and legalization of marijuana. The Tories will huff and puff, and privately thank the Liberals for burying those divisive issues.

Other than the fiscal conservatism, which I don't think anyone could argue was a strictly Reform plank anyways, Reform is dead. The Triple-E senate is buried, the Liberals did most of the heavy lifting of devolution (and ironically, it was the Harper government that mucked with the Labour Market and Labour Market Development Agreements). It's time to take that picture of Randy White off your dart board. Last I heard, he'd walkted into a Parksville NDP constituency office and declared he was supporting the NDP.

[G Huxley]

Ambrose was one of the worst and highest paid of Harper's shills.

[Big Guy]

A mistake. The conflict within the party between the moderates and the far right continues with the far right winning the first battle. The war is what has to be won. Notice that none of the other candidates for the position were in the photo op.

Rona does not speak French, she bluffs it and francophones can easily tell. She is going to need a translator during question period if the question is in French.

[Derek 2.0]

As I said, she hasn't made it public that she intended to run in the leadership race......I would assume, based on performance and polling, if she does well, then she would run and the party wouldn't exclude her........hence the subject is moot.

From the Star:

Ambrose indicated she has no intention to run for the permanent leadership position.

Ambrose is an experienced politician, who has held eight different cabinet positions. She speaks French (in addition to Spanish and Portuguese), and has said she intends on spending time in Quebec as part of cross-country travel to rally supporters and to raise money.

There you go......

[The_Squid]

So to try and fix what went wrong in the election, the CPC got rid of a social conservative from Alberta and put in place.... a social conservative from Alberta.

LOL

I guess she'll appeal to the base....

[Argus]

A mistake. The conflict within the party between the moderates and the far right continues with the far right winning the first battle.

It seems that to some, there is the left, the centre and then 'the far right'. It appears some are so intolerant of different political opinions they can't even describe those who hold them without trying to use a pejorative term to demonstrate their loathing.

Rona does not speak French, she bluffs it and francophones can easily tell. She is going to need a translator during question period if the question is in French.

You wouldn't know this, of course, but all members of parliament get simultaneous translation while in the House.

The idea that only the small percentage of elites from central Canada who are fluent in both languages have anything to contribute to this country is, of course, bigoted nonsense of no demonstrated value.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Argus

[poochy]

No I would think not. But Harper took it on the chin and didn't go into hiding. Not very dictator like of him.

Well he did fill the senate with conservatives at the last...o no, he didn't. So evil though, so evil.

[poochy]

A mistake. The conflict within the party between the moderates and the far right continues with the far right winning the first battle. The war is what has to be won. Notice that none of the other candidates for the position were in the photo op.

Rona does not speak French, she bluffs it and francophones can easily tell. She is going to need a translator during question period if the question is in French.

yes we know, that narrative is already being started by the sunnier ways liberals, do you get all of your talking points from pnp?

[ToadBrother]

yes we know, that narrative is already being started by the sunnier ways liberals, do you get all of your talking points from pnp?

It's amazing how quickly the shoe fits on the other foot.

[cybercoma]

Could we get 300 posts describing what she would do in the Middle East?

[Smallc]

Could we get 300 posts describing what she would do in the Middle East?

I'll tell you what she would do for sure - bail out Bombardier.

[Derek 2.0]

Could we get 300 posts describing what she would do in the Middle East?

Continue along the previous Government's policy would be a safe bet.

[Derek 2.0]

I'll tell you what she would do for sure - bail out Bombardier.

As a disciple of Rand, I highly doubt it.

[G Huxley]

So to try and fix what went wrong in the election, the CPC got rid of a social conservative from Alberta and put in place.... a social conservative from Alberta.

LOL

I guess she'll appeal to the base....

The very base.

[cybercoma]

Well, at least the SoCons got their way. Maybe Trudeau can lead for 18 years like his father. See you all in 2033.

Edited November 6, 2015 by cybercoma

[Big Guy]

yes we know, that narrative is already being started by the sunnier ways liberals, do you get all of your talking points from pnp?

I get no talking points from anyone. I post what I see as happening. Why do some of you folks always want to put other posters into categories instead of responding to the issues?

The Conservative party has just lost an election. It is common knowledge that there have been two major factions vying for control of the party for years. That is one if the reasons why Harper had to impose his restrictive management style. It worked. Anyone who has been following politics understands that. Harper is gone. That management style has gone with him. The Progressive Conservative wing and the Reform/Alliance wing are again in a tug of war for control of the party.

The choosing of the interim leader is an important indicator of which side is winning at this point.

Unlike some other posters here, I refer to political leanings as left, middle and right as describing their vision of society - each just as valid as the other. We need diversity of views for a healthy democracy. There is no "bad" position as is there a "good" position. It is a position.

The reality of the Conservative party now is the same as any other party after it has lost power. It has to review what went wrong, what has to change and in what direction. The initial indicator for the Conservatives through their choice of interim leader Ambrose is that the hard right is still in control. The battle for the heart of the party will continue.

Yesterday, Brian Mulroney gave a speech in Toronto basically supporting the moderate side. Peter McKay spend a 15 minute interview explaining his position but not discounting his future run back for the leadership. That is all fact.

I suggest that one should keep from cheerleading until you discover what you are cheering for. There are new players, there are new coaches and perhaps a new game plan. Every government works better with a strong opposition. I hope a new moderate Progressive Conservative party supplies that opposition.

[G Huxley]

It seems that Ambrose got the Kim Campbell treatment. No one wanted to take the fall, so they put her as the fall person.

[Bonam]

I get no talking points from anyone. I post what I see as happening. Why do some of you folks always want to put other posters into categories instead of responding to the issues?

Oh the irony.

[ReeferMadness]

For her to have gotten the full Kim Campbell treatment, Harper would have had to give her the wheel just as it was clear the bus was headed over the cliff.

[G Huxley]

A lesser variant of the Kim Campbell treatment.

[Triple M]

The Tories need to realize Canadians do not trust them so changing the tone will not be seen as sincere.

However, Rona should get some benefit of the doubt but instead I've seen quite a few people start tearing her down (not on this site)

What bothers me is it is coming from people that were disgusted by negative politics.

[G Huxley]

Ambrose had plenty of time to prove herself in Harper's cabinet and she showed how she was willing to say anything Harper wanted her to say for a considerable sum.

[ReeferMadness]

I think in fairness to Rona Ambrose, we'll have to say she was a team player and willing to do what was needed to be on Harper's team. What she does now that she's on Rona's team remains to be seen. So far, she's indicated she's willing to play a positive role and her willingness to support the inquiry into MMIW (which Harper was dead against) is a good sign.

Like Trudeau, we'll see what she does.

[Big Guy]

There are many management styles available for our government in our form of democracy. Up to about 30 years ago, people were given positions in cabinet and they were expected to make their own decisions on their portfolios based on party philosophy. I believe that as communication technology changed, so did the distribution of decision making. Pierre Trudeau began the process of decision making taking place on the PMO with cabinet fine tuning and vocalizing process.

Harper brought that style to the extreme where all decisions were made in the PMO. It worked for him and his crew - he was after all re-elected a number of times and in power for 9 years.

The challenge as I see it is that Harper has left a caucus unaccustomed to making decisions. Rona is no Harper and is going to need help from the rest of the crew. It was a little discouraging watching Rona do her first press conference taking only 3 questions - but, more telling, none of the other candidates for interim leader were behind her. She is going to have her hands full with most of those folks ready to speak their minds or she will have to reapply the muzzles - if she can. I do not think she can (or should).

It is ironic that father Pierre started the process of centralizing power in the PMO and son Justin is trying to reverse the process.

[ToadBrother]

It is ironic that father Pierre started the process of centralizing power in the PMO and son Justin is trying to reverse the process.

In the olden days, party leaders used to apply the levers of power more subtly. Can you imagine the likes of Benjamin Disraeli or, if you want a Canadian example, Wilfred Laurier stomping around their caucuses forcing MPs to give scripted speeches and running every major government department from their own office.

In part, I think the centralization trend in Canada over the last four decades has simply been a sort of laziness on the part of party leaders. To their view, it's just been much easier to impose their will on their subordinates, to use the party machine to clobber dissidents.

But we've heard multiple times from multiple sources that while Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien certainly brought more of the higher levels of government under their personal watch, that none of them created the centralized structures that Harper invoked. Sheila Copps had an editorial in the Hill Times several months ago that stated that in all her years as a minister under Chretien, only twice did he ever directly intervene in the running of her department, and that she was free to issue her own press releases.

Simply put, the alleged centralization of Harper's immediate predecessors was exaggerated by the Tories as a sort of defense of the way they had basically delivered all party and governmental power into the PMO. It was a sort of "lowest common denominator" defense, along the lines of "Well, you know, Chretien was just as bad, so it's okay."

Not that I'm defending the way that Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien did centralize a lot of executive power, but this idea that government was run the way the Tory's ran it, particularly over the last four years, is rubbish, a myth invented largely to make Harper's conduct seem normal.