Two Tales of Conservatives

Living where I do, I get the dubious pleasure of listening to not one, but two "Conservative" parties engage in what they think passes for political discourse.

Provincially, we have a "Progressive Conservative" party currently holding the reigns of power. In a series of softball questions from a backbench MLA to the Attorney General, we found out this morning (or yesterday) two things -

1. The Alberta Government is opposed to the legalization of marijuana bill that Ottawa is considering.
2. The government will hold an inquiry into the recent slaying of 4 RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe last week.

First, in the department of "not getting it", the shootings in Mayerthorpe had exactly zero to do with the legalization of Marijuana. The nut-case that did the shooting had serious mental problems, and obviously a more than slightly paranoid view of the RCMP.

In addition to a small scale Marijuana grow-op, he was running a chop shop and was himself possessed of firearms he shouldn't have had and a criminal record long enough for Gilbert and Sullivan's KoKo to use as his "little list". Oh yes, and did I mention the truck that was up for repossession that set this whole business off?

In other words, this guy was looking for a confrontation, and quite unlikely to live "within" the law anyhow. For all intents and purposes, he was a career criminal. No more, no less. If there's anything to be pursued here, it's not the law itself, but instead, let's track down where he got an assault rifle from, and give the SOB that sold him that weapon the 4 life sentences so richly deserved.

In Edmonton, we're talking about an inquiry - this coming from a Government who wastes taxpayer dollars running its own little execu-toy airline, and gets all nervous and twitchy when you question their spending habits... hmmm....

On the federal front, we have Stephen Harper's merry band of "Conservatives" - mostly a group who should call themselves "Republican-Wannabes". The Conservatives will be holding a policy convention this month. Apparently, in a sudden fit of what passes for intelligence, the caucus has put forth a motion on all of the touchy social conservative issues - abortion, gay rights, euthanasia etc. - that says that all of those topics should be matters of conscience for the MPs, and therefore the party should make them 'free votes' in the house. My, my, my - it would appear that in the face of actually have to make a position, the Conservatives are making a dive for the mushy-grounds - in this case trying to evade having to make a policy at all.

It's really quite laughable when you think about it. What it says is that a Conservative MP isn't even going to represent - or discuss - their constituents' beliefs, but instead are going to vote based on "their conscience". Given the stunning silence of Jason Kenney's office to correspondence that might cause Mr. Kenney to re-examine his position on anything, I can only imagine that a Conservative government - should this country ever be fool enough to elect one - will be about as non-responsive as you can get.

Of course, the obvious point is also that the Conservatives in their current form are afraid to tackle real issues head on. Instead, they are going to play the populist card and "defer" to the "conscience" of their MPs. (Just like King Ralph does from his seat in Edmonton) Great, so if I vote for a Conservative MP, what am I voting for? My MP, or the party line? Come to think of it, what would the party line be????

Oh - wait, I think I've got it! I'm voting for my local MP, who will toe the party line. However, if the issue is too touchy for the party to take a real position, my MP will take an arbitrary position and ignore opinions that are inconvenient.

Frankly, at the moment, I'll take Paul "Mr. Dithers" Martin, he's at least willing to take a position on issues and then engage in discussion. Having lived in Alberta under King Ralph - who insists on starting pissing matches with Ottawa over everything - I really don't think I want to see Harper anywhere near 24 Sussex Dr.