• Thanks for stopping by. Logging in to a registered account will remove all generic ads. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.

Invite Bloc To Merger Talks: Clark

  • Thread starter the patriot
  • Start date
T

the patriot

Guest
March 3, 2001.

Invite Bloc to merger talks: Clark
No more grits ‘by default‘: Day warns Alliance members to stop secret unity meetings


Sheldon Alberts in Ottawa and Joël-Denis Bellavance in Montreal
National Post

Pierre Obendrauf, The Gazette


Stockwell Day met members of the Quebec wing of the Young Conservatives in Montreal yesterday to talk about politics and shoot some pool.


OTTAWA and MONTREAL - Joe Clark suggested yesterday that supporters of the separatist Bloc Québécois be invited to join preliminary talks aimed at forming a united opposition to the Liberals in the next election.

The Tory leader said he believes Bloc supporters are just as frustrated with successive Liberal victories as conservative supporters are, and argued no party can form a viable alternative unless it includes Quebec nationalists.

His overture to the Bloc, a party born out of a dissatisfied faction of the Tory party in the 1980s, came as Stockwell Day gave his blessing to the holding of a joint policy convention involving the Alliance and the Conservative party before the next election if talks between the two parties continue to gain momentum.

At the same time, Mr. Day, who unveiled his party‘s guiding principles for continued dialogue with the Tories in a speech to Quebec Tory youth in Montreal, warned he will no longer tolerate secret meetings between senior Canadian Alliance and Conservative MPs.

Four meetings between senior members of the Alliance and the Conservative party have been held in recent weeks without Mr. Day being told about them.

"Any formal discussion of co- operation can not happen through a backroom deal," Mr. Day told about 30 members of the Quebec Tory Youth Association.

In Ottawa, Mr. Clark, who has been criticized for appearing eager to co-operate with Quebec nationalists, said defeating the Liberals has to be the priority of every opposition party.

"I believe that we have to be in the situation where the Liberal party doesn‘t get elected by default next time. That means there has to be a political party that can attract support from people who in the past voted for the Bloc Québécois, people who in the past voted for the Alliance, people in the past who voted for us.

"I think members of the Bloc Québécois are also interested in ensuring that we end this situation where there is an election of Liberals by default."

"Does it have to be competitive in Quebec and in Western Canada?" Mr. Clark asked. "Of course it does. And so we have to find ways."

He characterized negotiations to create a united opposition party as "cautious discussions" that start with co-operation in Parliament. He also suggested the Bloc could join the Alliance and Tories in scrutinizing the Prime Minister‘s business dealings in his riding.

A spokesman for the Bloc Québécois said the party had no comment on Mr. Clark‘s remarks.

"What we are trying to do is take some small steps now whose ultimate destination one can‘t predict," Mr. Clark said.

He told reporters the coalition of Ontario Tories, Western populists and Quebec nationalists that formed under Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister, successfully negotiated free trade with the United States and nearly achieved constitutional reform.

"That was a very creative coalition," he said. "It allowed free trade. It almost achieved constitutional accord. The point of governments is to draw the real differences of the country together."

The Mulroney coalition collapsed after the defeat of the Meech Lake accord, and led to the creation of the populist Reform party in the West and separatist Bloc in Quebec.

For his part, Mr. Day conceded it will be virtually impossible for the Canadian Alliance to unseat the Liberals unless it unites with the Tories.

"Our chances of forming the next government will be better with the Progressive Conservatives," Mr. Day told reporters.

He also suggested the discussions could lead to the creation of a new party and a leadership race in which he would be a candidate.

The other principles Mr. Day said must be respected are:

- Both parties must be open to dialogue and discussion.

- Any talk of unity must be based on democratic, conservative principles such as lower taxation, democratic reform and constitutional peace with the provinces.

- Members of the Alliance must approve any move toward greater co-operation with the Conservative party.

Mr. Day refused to comment on the four principles set out by Mr. Clark for a continued dialogue, saying only they should be part of the overall discussion.

The Tory principles include the retention of the Conservative name and the socially progressive agenda of the party. They also call for the new entity to be a viable national alternative to the Liberals and assurances the Progressive Conservatives will be given equal representation.

The renewed talk of creating a united party on the political right came this week after it emerged that senior Tory and Alliance parliamentarians and strategists have been holding private meetings to begin discussion on how to co-operate in Parliament.

Mr. Clark said he favours maintaining the Conservative party name, but it was unclear whether he believes such a condition is a potential deal breaker.

"I want to have an election four years from now in which there is a clear choice between the Liberal party on the one hand and another party on the other. My strong preference would be, of course, that that be a party very much like the Progressive Conservatives," he said. "My view, as it has been for some time, is that the name Progressive Conservative party reflects what I am, and what my party is. And I don‘t consider that to be in play."
**********************************************************************

Some food for thought. This is a repeat of the events in 1983 that brought Brian Mulroney to power. He invited Quebec Nationalists into the Progressive Conservative Party, promising that he would tinker with the Constitution to appease them. Let‘s take a look at this shall we?!!! THE BLOC QUEBECOIS ARE TRAITORS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HANGED LIKE LOUIS RIEL!!!!!!!!!! And Stockwell Day and Joe Clark have the guts to invide these fools back into the fold. We almost lost the country back in 1995. What do these fools want? Clark‘s party signed the country away with Free Trade in 1988. Whoever falls for this joke of a political spectacle should look at Canada‘s history for the last 30 years. We were more independant under Trudeau, had a Land Element that we were proud of (for those who argue that the Black Watch and the Queen‘s Own Rifles were scrapped due to CF unification, do remember they were created out of the heart of the Royal Canadian Regiment after the RCR came home after World War II). To top it off, Trudeau gave us the Airborne Regiment. Probably our best outfit in the history of the Canadian Forces. Our foreign policy was truly "Canadian" not a branch transplant of American political opportunism.

-the patriot-
 
Back
Top