Ray Heard is at it again--and, let's be clear, this can only be good news for the federal tories.
In 1980, a guy named George C. Perlin wrote an important book called "The Tory Syndrome", in which he attempted to explain the failure of the federal Conservative Party as owing to a tendency on behalf of it's members for engagement in perpetual internal fratricide (read: federal tories' failure had to do with a penchant to kill their own).
Aside from the possibility of Perlin having confused "cause and effect" (i.e. internal party bickering may have been the effect of Conservative political failure--not always or necessarily it's cause), the theory makes a whole lot of sense if you look at Conservative party politics in, say, the 90's. Adam documents this well in his book.
While the reign of Prime Minister Harper will be remembered for many positive contributions (and many more still to come, I'm sure), we can all agree that a unique accomplishment has been the taming of the various factions within the party and the relative harmony developed within conservative movement in general. Put simply, the Tory Syndrome is dead. And it's been a long time coming.
Meanwhile, it is now abundantly clear that the sorry spectacle that was the Chretien-Martin affair comprised itself of all the necessary ingredients of a new (yes, I'm going to say it) "Liberal syndrome." Guys like Ray Heard perpetuate this theory, previously unthinkable for the LPC in Canadian politics. So there you have it, Ray Heard is my hero--I pray that he keeps it up.
# posted by Omar Soliman : 1:59 PM
