Wake Up, and Wake Up Now

On Monday, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is expected to tender his resignation, at which point the Liberal Party will begin the process to replace him. It should be noted that while I initially believed that this was the only reasonable course of action, I continue to remain unsure of what comes next. Not a single person who ran against Mr. Dion last time is equipped to do a better job than he did with respect to rebuilding the Party and leading it to electoral victory. Not one of them has the ability not just to unite the Party and the country, but more importantly to inspire us. I remain unconvinced that the Party can afford a leadership race when we should be focusing our efforts on raising money to build a warchest to defeat Stephen Harper.

However, regardless of my own opinions, regardless of how well I believe them to be held, Mr. Dion will proceed with his plans on Monday. When he does, the last thing we can afford to do is tell ourselves that with a new leader, all our problems will be solved. They won't. We have a serious problem. In each of the last three elections, we have lost seats in the House of Commons. We have lost support to the Tories. We have lost support to the NDP. We have even lost support to the Greens. Mr. Dion was only leader for one of those three elections. By itself, selecting a new leader will not do anything to change this.

Since the end of the Chrétien era, the backroom of the Liberal Party has forgotten how to win. To quote Austin Power, it has lost its mojo. The very meaning of what it means to be a Liberal has become blurred. We have abdicated our right to define who we are to our political opponents, and they have done a fine job of it. Well, it's time for us to wake up and take control of our own destiny once again.

I am sick and tired. I am sick and tired that the Party that I believe in, the party that I left a promising future within the Conservative Party to join, chooses to lie down and play dead. We all need to wake up, and stand up, because Stephen Harper came along and told us that being a Liberal means that we are soft on crime, soft on defense, soft on economic policy, bad diplomats, bad role-models, and risky. And instead of standing up and saying, "Listen up you right-wing, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, gun-toting, anti-choice, environment-hating liar; we're not going to put up with your crap for another second," we've chosen to hide in a corner and beg our opponents not to hurt us. You want to know why our fundraising numbers are anemic? How on earth can we expect people to give us money when we won't even defend ourselves. We are a parliamentary punching bag right now, and until we stand up, tell the country that enough is enough, and that we are going to stand up for our beliefs, we will never escape our fundraising doldrums, nor will we form government.

Stephen Harper has run one of the most divisive governments in our history. In a minority parliament, he has made a career of pitting neighbourhood against neighbourhood, community against community, region against region, Canadian against Canadian. Our surpluses are turning into deficits before our eyes, we have withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocols, we have abandoned our policy of advocating against capital punishment, and we have stood by while the machinery of government has been used to attack the non-partisan institutions of state. And still, somehow we are still losing seats. Many of us are scratching our heads, because we think that we can get along by just sitting here and waiting for people to "come home."

Enough with the sense of entitlement. Enough with the hope that maybe if people get scared enough of Stephen Harper, they'll vote for us instead. We need to grow a spine, articulate our policies, and get out there and get on offense. That's how we win.