Author says the Liberals are dead
Posted November 29, 2011 6:58 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – They were considered Canada’s “natural governing party” for the better part of a century but today the Liberals are now a distant third place in the House of Commons. One veteran political observer argues they’re dead in the water.
In his new book, When the Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada, Peter C. Newman says the Liberals have been in decline for sometime, as they’ve lost about 30 seats in every election since 2004. “If you extrapolate that to the next election, they go in with 34 seats, they lose their usual 30 seats, you’re left with four seats and you have a game of bridge and go home.”
Newman warns the party is spread way too thin. “Their 34 MPs are scattered all over the country. They lost their Quebec base which was historically their big base, they’ve lost their Ontario base which was the next big base and they’ve lost their Toronto base. They have nothing.”
The author hates to admit it, but adds history is against the Liberals, as middle of the road parties in Holland, Germany, France and other countries have also fallen by the wayside in recent years. He points out with the Harper Conservatives phasing out the federal voter subsidy, the Liberals are about to lose their one reliable source of revenue.
