Canadians must be doing something right, if the past ten years has prompted this otherwise space-filling column by the Globe’s Lawrence Martin.

And I think I’m right in describing this as a “lament.” When you see phrases like “liberal Eden,” “old conception of Canada at risk,” and “Canadian consensus imperiled,” it does add up to the impression that Mr. Martin happens to like the idea of Trudeaupia and doesn’t want to see its passing into history.

It’s still worth reading, though, because he happens to point out a few things that the Libranos, in their blundering around towards a path to power, can do nothing about.

The first is the historical fact of 9/11:

It shifted the political spectrum rightward. It led to the war in Afghanistan, to a redefinition of Canada’s military role, to a glorification of the armed services and men such as Rick Hillier whose agenda was to get out there and kill, as the general put it, all those “scumbags.”

I’ll grant that the start of this shift happened under Paul Martin. But the fact is, increased support of the Canadian Forces and warfighting was long overdue for a revision. And 9/11 merely helped give that revision a stronger focus.

The second is the rise of the West and the connecting role of demographics:

In this decade, the focus went west, where the resource riches lay and where the population was moving. For the first time, Canadians elected what could truly be considered a western-rooted government, one highly attuned to the free-market spirit of Alberta . . . Older voters tend to vote Conservative, and the population was aging. The youth cohort, where green and left-wing urges reside, stayed turned off and tuned out.

Yes, it’s a gross oversimplification. But Mr. Martin does have a point about the youth vote in that lower turnouts are a bigger problem for the Opposition parties than for the government. Especially a government led by a party with stronger grassroots fundraising support.

Personally, I think we can all live with Mr. Martin’s discomfort. After all, the Trudeaupian ideal was ultimately unsustainable, relying as it did on the assumption that the People would preferred a bigger societal role for central government, and a lowered expectation for conflict internationally. Mr. Martin’s nostalgia is simply a sign that Canada is moving forward. Mankind had to leave the Garden of Eden; the Liberal one is no different.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 06:08 and is filed under Can Cons, Media Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.