In House Panel - Transition Watch
Change is in the air in Ottawa, and here to discuss the challenges of transitions are our In House election panelists. Rosemary Barton is the host of Power & Politics on CBC News Network, and Andrew Coyne is a columnist for PostMedia and the National Post.
Q: What are the immediate challenges facing the Liberals as they establish their priorities?
R: One of the immediate challenges is that we don't really know what their priorities are. Is there a Top 10 list that the Liberals haven't shared withus? I think they need to at least get started on a bunch of these things, because if they're going to disappoint people, let's be honset — they should disappoint them sooner rather than later. And given the long list of things they've promised, there will be disappointments, inevitably.
AC: They've got the majority, they've got time, and they may have more money than they think they do or they said they had. Because they've liberated themselves from the requirement of a balanced budget to a modest extent, then if they run a deficit nobody's going to scream at them. They were reasonably modest in their proposals. The one area I think they may have raised expectations too far on is Aboriginal policy.
Q: Are there other areas where expectations may be too high?
RB: I think there are two areas that are going to be difficult. Climate change is one, and the other is legalization of marijuana.
Q: What do you expect from the leadership race?
AC: They've got a base to build from. This was far from a wipe-out, so they've got something they can work with. There's a lot nof disaffected Conservative factions within the party, and I don't think it's to be feared having a broad discussion about what the party stands for, as long as everyone understands they're going to have to mix water into their wine.
RB: I think there's going to be a long pause. There's plenty of soul searching that has to be done. The one thing that struck me this week with all the different Conservatives I spoke to was that they acknowledge the campaign went badly, but they weren't sure what exactly went wrong. I think they really need to dig into what that means, and probably not hurry into a leadership race.
What do the NDP need to do now?
RB: I think Tom Mulcair can stay [as leader] for now. I think they probably need someone to stick around for a little while, at least up until the leadership review [in April]. I'm not sure it's the best idea for him to stay forever.
AC: I can't imagine Mulcair leading them into the next election. He was brought in because the NDP decided they were going to move beyond their traditional role to be a contender for power — to occupy what they thought was going to be the vacuum in the centre because the Liberals were going to collapse, and they didn't, of course. The Liberals have re-established ownership of the political centre in Canada, if not the centre left. Once the NDP made that change in their mindset from being the party of the left to the party seeking power, and that was denied them, can they go back to being what they were?