Political Brethren : Embracing Loathsomeness

It's awfully nice when families make an effort to come together, to decide to forget their differences, and make an effort toward reconciliation. After all, life is too short to harbour resentment and grudges, isn't it? And somehow, even if one family member presents as someone you wouldn't ordinarily get along with because you don't appreciate their character, behaviour or values, that old adage about blood being thicker than water at least encourages the effort to overlook the unpalatable for a stab at better relations.

It just makes everyone feel better about themselves. And just incidentally, there might be a time when that very same individual, regrettable though his/her mode of behaviour and personal values are, could be of some assistance to you personally. You never know. And sometimes you lay aside bad feelings because you want to please a third party; say for example the parents in the family. Or perhaps there's an unfortunate situation where the family has been deleteriously impacted by some kind of tragedy. Everyone pulls together.

And so it is, one supposes, with political parties, too. There are always elements and cliques in any political party that pull away from the mainstream. And sometimes those disaffected ones actually disrupt the mainstream to the extent that the entire party becomes fairly dysfunctional. On the other hand, there have been occasions with one faction, beginning as a minority, pulls others toward their ideological differences and suddenly they become the effective majority. And then sense of grievance and anger can cause further disruptions.

Best to make amends between one another, restore collegiality for the common purpose of getting ahead. Since that, after all, is what most political parties strive for; to get ahead of their political opponents. So far ahead that the electorate views them with favour, electing them to form the new government. Which occurs often enough. In the case of a minority government, it helps to entice all members, including the disaffected ones, to join in a common purpose. Bringing their favoured regional support to bear in hopes of a majority win.

So here is the once-fractured Conservative Party of Canada suddenly finding anew common cause with the popularly-disliked former prime minister of Canada, the (dis)Honourable Brian Mulroney. Time has not mellowed the public's perception of his sleazy personality. But for some truly peculiar reason, well before his public persona rubbed the electorate the wrong way, he enjoyed a massively-majority government. And that bright memory has the Conservatives in a state of longing. Stranger still, Mr. Mulroney still has support in Quebec. Which is precisely where the Conservatives would dearly like to pick up seats.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was saved from having to abase himself and his values for the sake of reconciliation, missing the 25th-year celebration of the 1984 election sweep. The personable and loyal Laureen Harper attended in his stead, while the prime minister made political hay for Canada in the New York money markets, after his Washington meetings with President Obama and Congressional leaders pleading for reinstatement of our 'good neighbour' trading status.

What a contrast in personalities; the Prime Minister's moral integrity and personal rectitude as opposed to the former prime minister's storied and all-too-obvious phony-baloney-malarkey persona, his fraudulent ethical standards sullying the office he was finally forced to abandon, having stepped too many times in his own ordure.

But politics does make strange bedfellows; we see evidence of that all the time. And doesn't it give Canadians a warm, snuggly feeling to know that the Conservatives are celebrating themselves anew as "one big happy family"?