Good News and Bad News - The Conservative Party's Nominations

Last week Kevin O'Leary bowed out of the leadership campaign for the Conservative Party. That is the good news. O'Leary was, at best a misguided, overly arrogant and completely inexperienced candidate. At worst, his proposed policies suggested dangerous directions for Canada to go in. He was bombastic, he seemed to say whatever popped into his head without  any filtering and he was combative to those he disagreed with. It is not completely clear to me as to why he quit the race. His stated reason - that being that while he knew he could be elected as leader of the party, he did not think that he could gain enough seats in Quebec to win a general election, does not ring true. A number of prime ministers have been elected without winning a lot of seat in Quebec  - most recently Harper. I suspect that he left the race because he realized, just days before his fellow businessman turned leader realized it, that running a country is a lot of work and, I suspect, not nearly as much fun as he thought.

The bad news is that the front runner in the above race is now Maxime Bernier - the person who O'Leary now supports. No one is ever sure if, when a candidate gives his support to another candidate, if his supporters follow him. That is - will those who said that O'Leary was their first choice, now switch to Bernier. One can only hope not.

Bernier is, in terms of political values and philosophies, a libertarian. He believes that if only the government would stop trying to regulate Canadians and their business practices, life would be fine. Libertarians generally believe in the trickle-down theory of economics. That if there is lots of money being generated by unfettered business - that everyone will be better off. The only people I know who believe this theory are those who are rich or who have a reasonable expectations that they will be. The rest of us know that it is just not true. I appreciate that frequently various governments appear to be far too involved in our daily lives. But there is no indication, in fact the data proves the opposite, that businesses left to themselves will do the right thing and protect the environment, the disadvantaged, minorities and the consumer.

It would appear the Bernier may become the next leader of the Conservative Party. If this happens, then our job will be to ensure that he does not become the next Prime Minister.