Robert L. Stanfield
The death of Robert Stanfield, who led the federal Tory party from 1967-1976, symbolizes the end of an era in politics. Stanfield was undoubtedly a well-intentioned and decent men; I've never heard of anyone who knew him speak ill of him. Not once. We wrote about Stanfield on the National Post editorial page today, and my views on him are pretty much summed up in that piece.
Whatever one might think of his Red Toryism (I dislike it quite a lot) it is easy to forget that Stanfield almost stopped Trudeaumania dead in its tracks, losing to PET by only 2 seats in 1972. If he had won that election, there's little doubt the size of government would not have grown as fast, nor would taxes have risen as quickly or by as much.
And the political nostalgist in me does lament the death of the men who came from Atlantic Canada and essentially hijacked the PC Party in the 1960s: Dalton Camp, Finlay MacDonald, Stanfield and their ilk. They are all gone now, and their disciples -- Joe Clark, Flora MacDonald, Lowell Murray, and others are now being relegated to the sidelines in the new Conservative Party or are not particpating in it at all. Canadian politics is indeed changing -- for the better in my view.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:30 PM
