FAIL: Top 5 Political Fails by Gerry Nicholls

fail I suppose its not stealing an idea if someone else acts on it first, so well done to Gerry Nicholls! I’ve pondering for some months now what to include in a post for the “Biggest Fails in Canadian Political History”, but Mr. Nicholls just beat me to it with his “Five Top Biggest Political Blunders in Canadian History”.

My list was identical except for the example of David Peterson, whom I would have replaced with Stephane Dion and his, well, nearly every move as Opposition Leader.

Five Top Biggest Political Blunders in Canadian History by Gerry Nicholls

#5. John Tory gets an education

Ontario went to the polls in 2007 and it seemed the governing Liberals under Premier Dalton McGuinty might be in trouble. Voters still remembered how McGuinty had broken a promise not to raise taxes and the Opposition Progressive Conservatives had a brand new leader, the personable John Tory. And Tory thought he had a winning issue: funding faith based schools.

The Plan
Tory wanted to extend public funding to religious schools. He had two reasons: a) he thought it was wrong to grant funding to Catholic schools but not to other religious schools b) he thought such a move would win him votes among ethnic voters in the Greater Toronto Area.

What Went Wrong
Many voters found Tory’s “faith based school” initiative confusing and those who didn’t find it confusing found it scary. Was Tory going to use tax dollars to finance terrorism schools? Even PC supporters didn’t like the plan and were vocal about saying so. Faced with overwhelming negative reaction and an open mutiny from within his own ranks, Tory dropped the idea halfway through the election. But by then it was too late.

The Result
Dalton McGuinty scored an easy majority government victory. Tory failed to win a seat. Faith-based schools didn’t get any funding.

# 4. David Peterson overestimates himself

David Peterson served as Ontario Premier in the mid to late 1980s. Bright, young, articulate and telegenic, this Liberal leader, with his trademark red ties, embodied the “Yuppie.” By all rights, he should have held power for a long time. But then he decided to risk his political career on a premature election.

The Plan
In 1990 Premier Peterson sensed economic trouble on the horizon. The province was heading for recession, so he figured it would make political sense to hold an election before the economy started turning sour. So with his party still way ahead in the polls, he called a “snap election” barely three years into his mandate.

What Went Wrong
What Peterson didn’t realize was that Ontario voters were coming to view their Yuppie Premier as arrogant and smug. And his clearly cynical decision to call a clearly opportunistic election only fuelled that sense. What’s worse, Peterson decided to make his leadership the central question of the election. Bad move.

The Result
The NDP under Bob Rae won a stunning majority victory sweeping the red-tie wearing Peterson and his Liberals from power. Rae, of course, then went to implement a socialist agenda and basically wrecked the Ontario economy. So in a sense everybody lost that election.

# 4. Harper’s Poor Chess Move

In the 2008 federal election Prime Minister Stephen Harper handed the Liberal Party one of its worst defeats ever. Did that satisfy him? Nope. What the Prime Minister really wanted to do was grind the defeated Liberals into little bits of red dust.

The Plan
Harper, known a “grand chess master of politics”, devised a move which he believed would drive the cash-strapped Liberals into bankruptcy. In November 2008 his government introduced a measure to end the public subsidies political parties enjoy. This was supposed to corner the Liberals: either they would accept the end to subsidies and essentially commit financial Hara-kiri or they would oppose it, triggering an election they would be sure to lose. On paper it was brilliant.

What Went Wrong
Harper had put the Liberals in a tight box alright, but that just made them desperate, desperate enough to form an unholy alliance with the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois, a countermove which the chess master had not anticipated. Suddenly this new NDP-Liberal-Bloc “Coalition” had the votes to potentially displace the Conservatives as the government. Talk about a plan backfiring!

The Result
Fortunately for Harper the Governor General prorogued Parliament thwarting the Coalition takeover. Yet, the Prime Minister was forced on the defensive and soon after his government introduced a Coalition-appeasing budget, which plunged the country deep into deficit.

# 3 Chretien’s Face

In the fall of 1993, Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Kim Campbell, (remember her?) was leading her party in a federal election. Unfortunately for her, things weren’t going that well. Already facing an uphill climb, Campbell made things worse with a series of gaffes – i.e. she supposedly commented that “an election is no time to discuss serious issues”. The Liberals seemed headed for at least a minority victory. And so, in a last desperate attempt to turn things around the PCs decided to launch a negative TV ad.

The Plan
The Tory party’s chief strategist, Alan Gregg, realized that although the Liberals were ahead in the polls, their leader, the old warhorse Jean Chretien, was not personally popular. So to hammer away at this weakness he produced a series of TV ads which featured unflattering close-ups of Chrétien with lines like “I’d be embarrassed if he were Prime Minister.”

What Went wrong
Unfortunately for the Tories many voters and media observers believed the attack ads were mocking Chrétien’s facial paralysis, leading to a severe anti-Tory backlash. And the wily Chretien recognizing a hanging curveball when he sees one smashed it out of the park, when he compared to the Conservatives to schoolyard bullies: “When I was a kid people were laughing at me,” he said, “but I accepted that because God gave me other qualities and I’m grateful.” Great drama.

The Result
The Liberals won a smashing majority and the once-mighty Conservatives were reduced to two seats in the Commons. Campbell lost her seat and resigned as leader. Chretien went on to win two more majority governments and gave eventually gave Canada “Adscam.”

#1 Joe Clark blows it

In 1979 Canadian conservatives had reason to be jubilant. That was the year Joe Clark and his Progressive Conservatives defeated the hated Liberals and formed a minority government. Even better, Pierre Trudeau had announced he would resign from politics. But then Clark decided to tempt fate.

The Plan
One of the reasons Clark had won the 1979 election was that he promised to cut taxes. So naturally when it came time to write his first budget he decided to raise taxes. In fact, he wanted to slap a whopping 18 percent tax on gasoline. The Tories called it “short term pain for long term gain.”

What Went Wrong
The Opposition, sensing that Clark’s tax was extremely unpopular, assembled all their MPs to vote against the budget. It was clear the budget, if introduced, would be defeated on a non-confidence vote and the government would fall. Yet Clark went ahead and presented the budget – and his government fell.

The Result
As soon as the government fell Trudeau reversed his decision to resign and led the Liberals to a majority government victory over the hapless Clark. This gave Trudeau four more years to wreak havoc on the Canadian economy as he introduced such measures as the National Energy Program. Thanks Joe.

October 20, 2009 Tags: Canadian Political Fails, Gerry Nicholls, Jean Chrétien, John Tory, Kim Campell, Libertas Post, Stephane Dion Posted in: Blog Content, Canadian Political Fails

4 Responses

real conservative - October 20, 2009

The real lessons from the above: play fair, work hard, and wait for success to come to you.
Kerry Forrest - October 20, 2009

I think the real lesson is: Be principled, go to the people and pay attention to this little fact – We never know as much as we think we know. Though I totally agree with RC, up until the wait for success part. Do the rest well and go get success, because its waiting for you.
Calgary Junkie - October 20, 2009

Hmmm, what was it again that is missing in the background of “Harper’s poor chess move” ? Oh yah. It was that Layton and Duceppe were plotting the Coalition coup long BEFORE Harper threatened to take away the $1.95 per vote subsidy. And Dion was brought into the coup early on as well.

Most of these inconvenient details are straight from Layton’s mouth, in the infamous secret tape of the Dipper caucus meeting. So ANYTHING in or out of Flaherty’s economic update would have spurred the three stooges into action. The $1.95 thing was just a convenient excuse. But hey, don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.
Rick - October 20, 2009

Clearly “Harper’s poor chess move” does not belong on this list. The coalition was forming no matter what. Harper knew it, so he put in the “poison pill” of cutting subsidies to political parties. Without that “poison pill”, the whole dynamic of the coalition would have been different in the voters minds. With it the polls went over 50% for the Tories. The CBC, CTV, Globe and Star repeated “Harper bungled” incessantly, so now it seems to be “common knowledge”. Howevere, any cursory review of the facts shows it was brilliant … check mate Harper!