http://www.mapleleafweb.com/blog/greg-farries/does-liberal-party-have-lose-order-win Comments for "Does the Liberal Party Have to Lose in Order to Win?" en http://www.mapleleafweb.com/blog/greg-farries/does-liberal-party-have-lose-order-win#comment-372 <p>I think the Liberal Party has destroyed itself. It doesn't matter what it does, it doesn't have the horses, it doesn't have the policies, it doesn't know what it represents, it only knows that it opposes ... </p> <p>Let me explain. The Liberal Party used to be the place where the deals were brokered between the regions and language groups of the country. Fundamentally, it was the place where ten provinces became two peoples, and where the leadership was, behind the scenes, a partnership. Mackenzie King's Liberals were the embodiment of that partnership. </p> <p>That party doesn't exist anymore. First, Trudeau fundamentally ended parts of the partnership by uniting English-speaking and French-speaking wings of the party in one person. (He never had a CD Howe figure, an Anglo lieutenant.) Second, the party has no real roots in French-speaking Quebec, and hasn't, ever since the Bloc was formed. Third, the public has had enough expansion of the welfare state. And fourth, and perhaps most importantly, separatism is fading from the scene, and the young people aren't going for it. (They may still be 'patriotes', but now more quebecois see more clearly that they'd likely do better as a major part of a 30+ million nation than as a nation of 5 million on their own.) </p> <p>The animating spirit of the Liberal Party is already dead. In a strange way, the only part of it that still works is the vote-getting apparatus. As they say, 'the brand' still has pulling power. But the skeletal remains are occupied by outsiders to the Liberal Party. (In that sense, Bob Rae is as much an outsider as Ignatieff.) </p> <p>The next generation w