Liberalism - Up Close and Personal

It was a humorous exercise to gauge the National Post’s reaction to these recurring posts on rethinking Liberalism.  Writer Lorne Gunter claimed today that he used to be a Liberal but that the party eventually became too elitist for him.  He cites Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau as elitists and states the party has moved too far from the people.There remains this overall penchant in Canadian politics towards absolutism. When the PM broke repeated campaign promises and placed a boatload of friends as senators, was that not elitist?  When the Conservatives came within a breath of contempt of Parliament for repeatedly refusing the will of the House, was that not elitist?  A billion dollars for the G8/G20 and some three billion dollars for a crime- fighting bill that was never vetted through the House is hardly responding to the people.  This Conservative list is as extensive as any Liberal one, but the point is that the Post, and Gunter himself, failed to cast their jaundiced eye at the ruling party.  It remains easy to castigate someone you oppose, but another thing entirely to turn the microscope on your friends.This is not a Liberal problem alone, but a political one across the board.  Yet for Liberals themselves there has been the repeated attempt to answer why it is their message just isn’t sinking in.  I would like to suggest that it’s because the communications strategy isn’t personal or individual enough.  In a day and age of detached individualism, the method of announcing national programs as a means of capturing public attention just doesn’t register.  Conservatives mock Liberals for their affinity for a national daycare initiative, yet they ignore the repeated research stating that the Conservative plan leaves tens of thousand of families in the cold, unable to afford to place their children in quality care.  This is why Liberals seek to install such a program – when some can afford a benefit that a good many others can’t, then a large portion of our citizenry is hardly free to get on with their lives and historical liberalism cries foul.Instead of just promising an early learning and childcare program, Liberals would be better to fight for daycare spaces right where they are needed.  The democratic debate should be taking place on the streets of our communities with MPs leading the charge and not just their leader and not merely on the front pages of the newspapers.   Michael Ignatieff is one of the smartest and most decent people I’ve ever known, but if he were to come to my riding, stand on the front steps of a daycare facility that has been closed due to deep flaws in the Conservative program, and promise to listen to the community and restore the funding as soon as he’s elected, he would suddenly register with people in ways a national announcement never would.  If he were to stand outside a rural post office that has just been told it would be closed by the federal government and say, “No way.  This is the lifeblood of this community and I won’t let it happen.  It will remain open under a new government.”  The same pattern could be repeated at firehalls, polluted lakes, plant closings, aboriginal schools, and other places that are at risk but are key intersecting points for communities.  And those promises would have to be kept.Things have changed. It’s far better for politicians to champion people and opportunities in communities rather than the national stage.  The media would prefer such announcements in the National Press Theatre, but it’s time they got out of Ottawa and stopped climbing the walls anyway.  Individual citizens might not connect with political parties anymore, but they could if those parties rolled up their sleeves for those community institutions that people cared about and fought for them at the local level.  Politics should matter because communities do, and not the other way around.  It’s time for Liberals to reconnect, only this time not on their own terms.The issue here isn’t really about Liberals, Conservatives, NDP or whomever; it’s about power and its ability to keep a leader detached from the needs and lives of average citizens.  If this is the case, then a Conservative government that rules by authoritarianism or a Liberal one that rules by institutional fiat are both too removed for their own good.  Conservatives can mock this exercise in searching for a new mandate for the Liberal Party, but I can tell you this: if I was a Conservative MP saying this stuff I’d be kicked out of caucus or refused any right of advancement.  But as a Liberal, the party has welcomed any insights that might prove helpful, including my paltry ones.  That ability to permit an individual to self-examine his or her own community is a core liberal value and I can say from personal experience that my party isn’t afraid to accept it.  It’s when we shut down the individual voice to maintain power that there remains little hope.