Fiscal conservatives will be the downfall of ‘divided’ party and Notley’s New Democrats will win re-election

By Letter to the Editor on October 6, 2017.

Re: “New party still has lots left to do,” Aug. 26

According to Faron Ellis and George Rigaux, the federal and Alberta conservative parties are out of power because populists and social conservatives destroyed them. They say that the first thing the United Conservative Party must do, in order to get elected, is to purge itself of populists and social conservatives.

Ellis and Rigaux argue that populism is bad because it forces politicians to consult with their base before taking or changing political positions. But, isn’t representing, as opposed to ruling, the essence of democracy? Isn’t a political system that lets the people overrule Parliament, through referendums, superior to one that lets unaccountable and unelected judges overrule Parliament?

It was the fiscal conservatives — not social conservatives — who destroyed the Conservative Party of Canada: The Duffy affair, raising the age for pensions, cutting veterans services, and cutting mail delivery.

Harper foolishly listened to his radical political opponents and changed Parliament from a place where everyone could speak freely on social issues like abortion to a place of censorship. His conservative base abandoned him and didn’t vote in the last election. He naively believed social liberals vote for him in droves but they didn’t. Andrew Scheer has excluded social conservatives from his cabinet and will meet with the same electoral failure.

Again, it was the actions fiscal conservatives — not social conservatives — that defeated the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta: Sky palace, patronage appointments, paying money to committees that did not meet, introduction of private for profit health care, and the blowing up of hospitals.

The action plan of Ellis and Rigaux, if implemented, will result in a divided conservative party and be Rachel Notley’s lotto ticket to re-election.