Monday, March 27, 2006

Counterproductive

Tom Axworthy sums up a good chunk of the Libs' weaknesses over the last decade...but highlights the party's continuing problems in the process:
The man the Liberals have assigned to assemble their blueprint for party renewal says the defeated government's national daycare program was "a deathbed repentance," the gun registry was "an administrative disaster" and the response to the sponsorship scandal was "bizarre."

The blunt-talking Tom Axworthy, a former aide to Pierre Trudeau who teaches at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., also says the former government's Kyoto policy was not only difficult to understand, "it wasn't real anyway."

"On file after file, we haven't had bad ideas, but the implementation process has been abysmal," he said in an interview with CanWest News Service. "A press release is not a policy."
It's always a plus to see somebody willing to point out a good chunk of his own party's problems. But then, there's a danger to comments like Axworthy's as well.

After all, the statement appears highly likely to put supporters of Martin at least (and presumably Chretien as well) on the defensive - and thus looking to impugn character rather than dealing with substantive issues. And moreover, it seems to suggest that there's no need for a policy debate, only a debate as to how to better implement whatever vision one is supposed to draw from the current party.

Axworthy's comment may be a fairly accurate diagnosis of some of the Libs' past problems. But the effect of even acknowledging the truth seems to be a continuation of the infighting, back-stabbing and politics by press release that have become the face of the Libs, rather than a blueprint for change within the party.

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