ANDREW SCHEER’S VISION
By Paul Merkley.
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We are rapidly moving away from the notion that political parties in a democracy listen to the opinion of the people and serve as vehicles of their will. The thinking now is that political parties serve as enforcers of correct thinking.
We are not yet a One-Party State. But all of the several parties who strive to prove to us that they are uniquely gifted in giving expression to popular will are now taking on the attributes of the totalitarian organizations that handed over European politics to enforcers like Mussolini and Hitler.
Up until the day-before- yesterday, the Conservative Party was strutting to convince us that it was the Party that represented all Canadians. All the Parties “Look to the Future” of course – where else? But the Conservative Party was also expected to offer a wholesome programme developed through open debate at its conventions. This image cannot be reconciled with the ugly story of the party’s dealings with Senator Lynn Beyak. She has been ordered outside of the Conservative Party of Canada by its Leader Andrew Scheer.
The unspeakable crime that requires all Conservatives to shun Senator Beyak as a leper was her refusal to remove from her website a letter from a constituent who suggests that some Indigenous People want to get things for “no effort.”
About fifteen years ago, as I recall, Pierre Poilievre MP was forced to make a speech of self-denunciation in the House of Commons for exactly the same offense. It brought to my mind those Chinese politicians who were paraded before the people with dunce camps. Poilievre’s crawling performance set things straight with the Leadership, but tarnished forever his credentials as a mensch.
Senator Beyak’s difficulties bagan in March, 2017, when she spoke up against defamation of the people who were responsible for the residential schools: “I speak,” she said, “partly for the record, but mostly in memory of the kindly and well-intentioned men and women and their descendants — perhaps some of us here in this chamber — whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowledged for the most part and are overshadowed by negative reports.’ But think about it: what decent-minded person among us would want to challenge that thought? The people who set up those schools, with the full authorization of the Government of Canada, were among the most decent people of their generation. They provided food, learning, shelter and clothing to abandoned children. But as always throughout history there were some rotten opportunists lurking in corners. Thank God there are no rotten folks among the Conservative Party Caucus today.
The real reason why those promoters of the residential schools need to have a stake driven through their collective heart today is because they were acting out of professed “Christian” motives and that constitutes blasphemy against the ascendant atheist zeiegeist.
We do not really need well-developed views on the question of the residential schools to have well-developed views on the value of political parties. It is not sufficient for Conservative rank and file to stand up and salute when the Leader shuts down an off-centre thought. Our political parties did not come in to existence for the purpose of imposing correct thinking. They exist to provide opportunities for debate and then for proceeding towards agreement on the most important issues of the day.
In my view Senator Beyak’s word back in March of last year are well within the parameters of decent expression. In Mr. Scheer’s view, they are not. We must assume that when Mr. Scheer comes to power he will proceed to shut down such expression of opinion.
There is a famous Low cartoon of Hitler standing before the assembled ranks of the last Parliament (Reichstag) of Germany and saying, “I believe that I can say without fear of contradiction…” Has it really come to that?
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The Bayview Review 