I am still shocked at how easily the Reform party slipped inside Conservative clothing and appropriated all things PC. Can we please stop calling them Tories! A friend of mine coined the term "REFORM-a-Tories". It is a more accurate reference and would make for great T-shirts. In the spirit of Murray Dobbin's strategic framing, I think we should stop calling Steve a Tory. He is not and we are being governed by the Reform party. I hate that!
Was Mike Harris not a Tory? Was Margaret Thatcher not a Tory? It seems that a lot of Harper's powerful ministers had nothing to do with the Reform Party and were card-carrying PCers before the merger.
Besides, Harper didn't really fit with the populists in the Reform Party. He left Preston Manning's side to pout in the offices of the NCC (Nine Crackpots in a Closet).
I much prefer to refer to Harper's gang as the Banana Republicans - because the Yankee Republicans are the sole object of their admiration, and the source of all their Big Lies and dirty tricks.
...and because a banana republic is all Canada's going to be when they have their way with us.
I think if there was never a Reform Party the PC's would probably just right-wing as this new Conservative Party today. The party of Harris and Hudak was the same party of Bill Davis.
Really? You can compare
Davis to Harris?
banana republic it is and they've already got a chosen dictator where do I get a Tshirt?
I think "Reformatories" was coined by Warren Kinsella. That kind of ruins it for me.
Really? You can compare Davis to Harris?
My point is they belong to the same party. That is the rightwing takeover occurred within the PC's, it didn't require the "Reform Party." I think it's highly likely the federal PC's would have moved just as much to the right even if there never was a Reform Party.
MacPherson - Happens heavily in Alberta with 'us vs them' voters that don't differentiate between the provincial PC 'tories' and their federal counterparts...they call anything they identify as 'us' as 'tory'. I agree with you entirely...
I don' t think of the Harpocrats as "Tories" at all. Toryism implies a sense of respect for the common weal and a reverence for traditions that these US-loving neoliberals lack.
By that definition Mulroney wasn't a "Tory" either.
The Liberal Party of Ontario were traditionally more like 1990s neoliberal ideologues and dating back to turn of the last century. They'd pawn off any of the money-makers to rich friends of the party at the drop of a hat. All that was missing was a commitment to dregulation to complement the bargain basement sell-offs with a wink an' a nod part of the deal.
By that definition Mulroney wasn't a "Tory" either.
Indeed.
