What if ...?

"This is the craziest election I've ever witnessed."I occasionally tell people that I've received quite an education in Ottawa, but my real schooling came from London. I learned a lot from 30 years of public service as a firefighter and cut my teeth on community involvement through difficult years directing the local food bank and other projects. So this particular man's opinion of the current election campaign struck me as authentic. As he wheeled himself out from under his classic car in the garage, somewhat covered with grease, I recognized him instantly as a well-known London Conservative who has been an ardent activist for this city. We both laughed at our mutual recognition.." I don't think you'll be wanting my pamphlet," I remarked. He smiled back before saying, "No, Glen, you can keep it. I have never voted Liberal in my life. My Dad was an ardent Diefenbaker loyalist and it just runs in my bones." As I nodded in understanding, he wiped his hands on a rag before he continued. "This will be the first time in my life that I won't be voting at all and I feel sick about it."His wife came out then, asking if I wanted water or some soda. "She likes you ... a lot," the man said through a grin."I tried to get him to vote for you, Glen but he's Conservative through and through." I understood this instantly and remarked how I appreciated people of conviction."You might not be talking about me," he said. "I don't know where true Conservatives are anymore. We used to golf together a lot and helped in local campaigns. Now we've kind of drifted apart. Harper has done that. He wants our funds but not our principles. We never got responses back when we used to write him, cautioning him about placing us in such deficit and debt. I spent some time in the military and appreciated his leadership on Afghanistan. But now he's just gone AWOL. Our troops are disillusioned and their leader is just disinterested. Where is our pride, our fiscal framework, our belief in smaller government?"This is not a blog posting about Stephen Harper. Rather it's about a good many Conservatives who are now without a home. I got to thinking about this proud man as I walked further down his crescent and a thought struck me that has been little mentioned in this campaign, if ever. What if the Conservatives don't show up at the polls? It's not beyond the realm of possibility. Something has changed in these last two-and-a-half years since the last election. During the 2008 campaign there were complaints galore at the doors about Liberals but largely silence on the PM. Spending the last four weeks canvassing has introduced me to a new form of negativism on the PM - his meanness, reckless spending of things like prisons and G8/G20 summits, his bloating of government. I'm not making this up - it's just a reality at the doors. And a good amount of that is coming from Conservatives. They are no longer as sure as they were about the natural alliance between their own convictions and Harper's direction.A big deal has been made over and over in this campaign as to whether the Liberal vote will show up this time, as opposed to 2008. Good question. I can't quite get a good read if it will materialize, although there seems to be energy at the grassroots level. But what if it's the Conservatives that don't show? Or worse yet, if hardly anyone shows? It has the potential of altering the outcome of the campaign, though few seem to be paying much attention to it.Good Conservatives are just as necessary to this country as good Liberals, NDPs or Greens. And while Stephen Harper has followed the Republican game plan of suppressing the voter turnout so that he can mobilize his base and still win an election, what would happen if he actually turned off the decent people in his own party? There are so many Conservatives that help at the food bank, or assist us in Sudan, or who lead in various aspects of our community. They appreciate statesmanship, compromise and progressive growth within certain constraints. I've always known the PM never offered any of those things, but after visiting hundreds of Conservative doors, I now realize I'm not alone in that view. They appreciate power, but not at the cost of the country. They are wandering and it's not a sure bet that they will land at a polling booth on May 2nd. If not, then it won't merely be the opposition parties and citizens attempting to get their country back; it will be Conservatives themselves on the road to recovery and fiscal responsibility. If so, it will be a movement led by individuals like that proud man in his garage. It couldn't come a moment too soon.