The Bruce Report

The federal Grits, it seems, are getting their groove back. If by groove we mean they’re talking about “important” issues again.

Issues, like whether Kate Middleton’s grammy-in-law deserves the $1.53 each and every Canuck sends her each and every year of her imperial reign over the Great White North.

Or whether “millions of Canadians” can possibly be wrong to “regularly consume marijuana and other cannabis products.”

Or whether “a future Liberal government” can create policies and treaties “in order for Canada to regain its international standing as an intermediate power.”

Or whether “the Liberal Party of Canada” should continue with “the Liberal record of fiscal responsibility” even though six years have passed since it’s been in power.

If through these measures, and many other policy edicts, that emerged to dominate Bob Rae and company’s biennial gabfest in Ottawa this past weekend, we observe actual significance, then yes. . .I suppose we do discern a red trickle, if not actual tide, rising.

The problem is that the breakwater is painted blue, and it’s not going anywhere.

Liberals – their feet aching from years stumbling about the political wilderness without enough in their kitty to pay for new shoes – schlepped themselves to the nation’s capital to prove that “renewal” is more than just a word a psychiatrist uses before he puts the patient in a straightjacket.

More than 3,000 delegates attended to elect a new party president (Mike Crawley), reject an old faithful (Sheila Copps), and play a few jovial rounds of “If I were King of the World, Here’s What I Would Do. . .”

Topping the agenda, courtesy of the the party’s surging youth wing, was a proposal to do away with the Queen. (Not literally of course, as that would be rude).

Resolution 114 solemnly stated: “Whereas Canada is a multi-cultural nation, built by people from many diverse backgrounds and where at present co Canadian citizen can ever aspire to be head of our own country. . .be it resolved. . .to form an all-party committee to study the implementation of instituting a Canadian head of state popularly elected and sever formal ties with the British Crown.”

The “suggestion” was met with a mixture of raised eyebrows and tolerant smiles, before its was soundly defeated. Still, as one seasoned participant noted, “at least the kids are interested in politics.”

And pot.

Resolution 117 stipulated: “Whereas the failed prohibition of marijuana has exhausted countless billions of dollars spent on ineffective or incomplete enforcement and has resulted in unnecessarily dangerous and expensive congestion in our judicial system. . .be it resolved. . .that a new Liberal government will legalize marijuana and ensure the regulation and taxation of its production, distribution and use.”

There were other codicils mentioning illegal trafficking, impaired driving and drug dependency programs, but the headline grabber was calculated to appeal to the Cheeches and Chongs in the audience who apparently outnumbered the establishmentarians.

Following the proposal’s passage, Interim Leader Rae quipped, “If you want to be part of a group of free-thinking, innovative, thoughtful, pragmatic, hopeful, positive, happy people, come and join the Liberal party. . .And after the resolution on marijuana today, it’s going to be a group of even happier people in the Liberal party.”

It’s about time.

Political parties in this country have a tendency to destroy themselves with decidedly un-Canadian-like melodrama. The Mulroney Tories unravelled so quickly and  convincingly in the early 1990s, they needed Stephen Harper’s western block of reformers to stitch them back into shape.

Now that Mr. Harper enjoys a safe majority, of course, it’s unlikely anything the Liberals say or do in their national club house will resonate with most Canadians – which is why they can blather on about the evils of monarchy, the joys of weed and the importance of national prestige and fiscal responsibility.

Who’s listening? Who cares?

Perhaps it’s enough, for now, that the party of Pearson and Trudeau is getting it’s groove, if not real momentum, back.

Now, pass the dutchie from the left hand side, Your Highness.

Alec Bruce is a Moncton-based writer on politics, economics and current affairs. Check out his other blog here at Atlantic Business Magazine (ABMOnline): The Uneasy Chair.

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