Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 3, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg Kree March on third of tory delegates voted against Joe Clark Ottawa the progressive conservative which has an acknowledged capacity for such has created for itself both a problem and an unfortunately for the tories the problem is much More and More than the the problem is the leadership it is not a question of whether there must be a leadership that has been obvious since More than one third of delegates at the weekend Gen eral meeting voted for the problem is How to time events leading to the convention in such Way that it does not play into the hands of the the leadership convention would be held a few months before the next general election so that the new tory Leader can carry his convention momentum onto the but it is the liberals who will de cide on the Date of the next they Are not inclined to make life easy for the the Opportunity for the conserva if it can be seen through the Mist surrounding the leadership is to take advantage of the party popular position on fundamental constitutional and Energy Combine it with the Aura that envelopes a new and go out and win the next there will have to be a new tory when 34 percent of Dele Gates voted for a leadership Conven Tion it was a decisive blow to Joe to properly measure the severity of that blow one must keep a couple of Points in Clark had mounted a vigor and carefully organized Campaign to defend his Leader from the time the conservative government was Defeated until the end of 1980 a 10month period the party spent million promoting the it policies Joe Clark As estimates of How much of that million can be attributed to trying to save the leaders Job Range from a Low of to a High of the Campaign took Clark to every major City and town in the country As he worked telling conserva including most of the delegates to this general what had gone wrong in the past and How it would go right in the during that period of trying to solid Ify his Clark had an open there were no other Contes he was contending Only with his own record and one should also consider that the Leader of a party has considerable influence in the naming of convention Peter Thomson Ottawa editor delegates the delegates at Large and youth delegates in Well organized Steps were taken to ensure that the latter group would be heavily weighted Clarks copious notes were taken at youth on who spoke favourably about Clark and who spoke a favor few of the if made it to the general meeting in at the general meeting itself the leaders organization can influence the timing of the leadership review vote can be set to take place immediately after the Leader has addressed the on opening night before review committee forces have much time to influence both which will be overwhelmingly supportive of the can be arranged to take place be fore the main convention controls can be set to limit the number of no delegates attending the key leaders night session to Avert the possibility of All of these Steps were carefully taken by Clarks the Clark demonstrations were carefully and professionally there were people to Lead proc Lark applause at every before the vote everything was going for the Lead so effective was the organization of the general meeting that in the last Day or two before the vote it appeared delegates were swinging in Clarks favor and that fewer than on Quarter of delegates would vote for a Leader ship despite All these things going for More than on third of the Dele Gates gave Clark a vote of noncom Given the above mentioned biases in Clarks the political professionals figured the vote to mean that less than half of conservatives really support not Only is he dead in the water As several delegates put but his if he ran for the leadership would be the party establishment moved in stantly to minimize the and to get control of the incoming executive so As to be Able to direct the timing and the rules for the inevitable leadership the establishment set out to defeat potential rebels like Pat Nowlan and Chris Speyer who might be perceived As people who would push the leadership Issue uncomfortably that the and not the party is firmly in control be came evident when Peter Blaikie was elected president of the easily winning on the first ballot Over now Lan and two members of the conservative Blaikie immediately set out a rough designed to provide As much flexibility As possible in timing Clarks resignation As Leader and the holding of a leadership Blaikie will take three months to appraise the mood of the conserva Tive party across the Pri Marily on he will then report to the Leader the Leader would then decide How Long he will Blaikie has also stated he favors another general meeting of the at which the question of holding a leadership convention would again be put it is demanded by the Constitution before the end of that really Means in the fall of some 18 months from because no convention would be held in de Cember stretch it out no one should press Clark for his resignation during the next 90 Days while Blaikie assess ment is being the 90 Days of be stretched out to six Clark need not act immediately on Blaikie he could announce his resignation right now so that an Early leadership convention could be or he could wait for another review vote at another general meet ing in late his decision will be influenced by activities in the Liberal Camp where no one knows if prime minister tru Deau will resign after getting his constitutional package or wait another year or two or three or while playing for As much flex Bili Tyas possible in setting the Date for the next leadership the tories admit that the liberals hold All the High the tories with Good that the liberals will wait until the conservatives choose a Leader and then the liberals will make their own leadership if it looks like a repeat of 1967 and the conservatives held their convention in september of 1967 and chose Robert the tories soared in opinion polls immediately after the then the liberals held their Conven Tion in they chose tru Deau who promptly capitalized on convention momentum by calling an election in june in which the liberals easily won a Large no matter How they plot and plan the tories fear they will again be whips wed by the it is a the of is for the conservatives to come up with a More compelling Leader than either Stanfield or neither of whom captured the and minds of the that there is plenty of Talent in the wings is that the tories will pick a win Ner has to be in some doubt if one looks at the last two the conservative which tends to keep the factions of the party fighting themselves rather than the is the continuous rivalry be tween the party caucus and the is it is More than just a Dalton Camp versus John Diefenbaker fight of the it is a continuing virus which showed up on several occasions in the general meeting last the virus is alive and the conservatives Are but they do have an s irk Moscow by Anthony Barbieri the Baltimore Sun Moscow if eur communism is a dying As the Kremlin in then with its final gasps it marred the otherwise wooden serenity of the soviet communist party eur communism was developed during the late 1960s and Early 1970s by Western european communist parties that Are Force to compete in the elections of their eur communists hold that Moscow is not necessarily the Center of the communist endorse the concept of political pluralism and Power sharing and deny the doctrine of Kremlin they also drive the russians the soviets generated what passes for controversy at a communist party Congress by dealing a calculated snub to the italian largest and most noise some of the european eur communist the head of the italian Gian Carlo reportedly re fused to change his speech to fit soviet sensitivities and thus was denied the Opportunity to address the or so delegates assembled in the Kremlin Palace of he was shunted off to a nearby meeting Hall outside the Kremlin where a group of workers was rounded up to hear the same treatment also was accorded the japanese whose Kaneko Mitsu also was denied Access to the main Hall and what in the soviet the Centre of the worlds Atten Tion according to italian Pajet tas proposed speech would have been obliquely critical of the soviet intervention in Afghanistan and would have expressed the belief of the ital Ian party that Independent Trade Union movements were compatible with communist japanese sources said Mitsuhiro also planned to talk about the need for self determination As it related to one eur communist party Leader finally was allowed to address the though it was unclear what precisely he said in his formal differences exist Gordon head of great Britain Small and politically insignificant told the Congress sat urday night that differences can and do exist in the communist move ment on various but that they Are not so important As to Over Shadow the principles of proletarian internationalism and Solidarity be tween according to British Mclennan had planned to say that among the differences Between Par ties was the soviet intervention in Western communist sources later said that he had Deli Vered his speech As but an account of the Mclennan speech by the official Tass news Agency omitted any mention of Afagh the treatment accorded the ital ians contrasted sharply with that Given the French As the soviets no doubt the French and italian parties Are the two most politically powerful in Western but the French have dropped their flirtation with and after the so Viet invasion of Georges the French communist party made a Well publicized trip to Moscow to help take the heat off the As a Gaston head of the French was Given a place of Honor in the schedule of foreign leaders to address the he spoke ahead of All other Noorul ing party delegations and before some of the Heads of third world states with whom Moscow has an Allbut custodial the party leaders of Nei ther the italian nor the French Par ties came to both for domes tic political Enrico the italian communist party according to that his appearance in Moscow would be taken As a rapprochement with the Kremlin in none was in the Marchais is running for president of and despite his open sym Pathy with did not want to Call attention to the fact so close to the the head of the third major West european Santiago Carrillo of also stayed problems were expected Over what to do about the relatively Low level delegation the Spanish communists sent to to but the two Spanish delegates Hur ried Home to Madrid on tuesday in the Wake of the foiled righting coup for their the soviets profess to be unconcerned about eur com but the very use of the word gets under their skin it is referred to Here As so called euro common when he opened the Congress Mon Leonid the soviet party took a swipe at euro without explicitly mentioning passing fashion portuguese party Leader Al Varo Cuthal was dispatched to denounce it at a press we believe it has no the head of the pro Moscow portuguese party he eur communism was a passing fashion that has no fun this was precisely what the soviets wanted to defections from Hurt the party image despite Howard Hawleys Protesta the departure of Ben Hanuschak and Bud Boyce from the nip May Hurt his within 15 three members that move reflects on a party desired image As the logical the dissatisfaction evident in when Sidney Green formally resigned from the party be cause of a reversal in labor it was the anti Scab Resolution to make it illegal for a person to hire anyone if regular employees were on and Green believed it was contrary to the Dps objective of pursuing while it is not unusual for people in the same party to differ philosophical such differences usually he but in this Trade unionists were undermining him and he would not continue in such a when Green Pawley said it would not harm the party and would probably give other members greater Opportunity to grow and the complaints about labor influence were i 4 under the dome Arlene Billinkoff he at the same new people such As Jay Cowan and Wilson Parasiuk defended the role of while several veterans disa maintaining that the labor influence within the party would be harm that belief was demonstrated when Sam Hanuschak and Boyce signed a petition supporting similar insinuations were made about Hanuschak and As Paw Ley both members were in Seri Ous Hanuschak was facing at least two opponents for the nip Nomi nation in a seat he has held for 15 while Boyces Riding of Winnipeg Centre has been eliminated in the redistribution of constituency after losing the nip Nomina Tion for the Federal Riding of Winnipeg it was apparent he was in both men refused to accept that it is not Over a personal said it is Long he was not pleased with a number of similarly Boyce was unhappy with several nip and was even More concerned about the party Lack of position on a number of important the handling of the Constitution was a matter of concern and As Boyce the non stance of the party was there should be responsibility for enunciating a but that had not however the party did have a Posi Tion on anti Scab and the two remained opposed to that despite the fact that the party had attempted to move the Issue into the they saw the labor faction determining policy and that apprehension had been intensified by comments from who strongly supported the anti Scab he had said that those Las who did not endorse that position should be Given that Hanuschak said it was necessary to refuse to function under a Cloud of uncertainty As to whether i am being supported or sabotaged by the Pawley was he made no at tempt to seek the nip Nomina Tion in More concerned about my own political future than the in out to win the next Boyce was not As definite about seek ing office but he admitted Cowans statement was the final however he had already been concerned about the apparent Lack of the dogmatic private enter prise position of the tories was not he but the nip had failed to provide an Pawley was not surprised by the two As he dismissed their official reasons As Mere Camou Flage for their inability to obtain nip the party was formulating policy and no one was pushed he was that True Green was Hanuschak was Boyce was if they United and found a fourth person they might form an official Al though Yuskiw said he intended to run under the party other rumblings of dissatisfaction were still Evi it has become observed the nip has saddled itself with a problem which wont go either the nip is in trouble As some have the departure of three dissidents May have improved the party without there May be a More cohesive position and ultimately More that has occurred during the Dps first term in two members left the fold to become inde Pendents and it was not detrimental to the after the next elec Tion they were replaced by recognized new it is difficult to pre dict what will happen this though it appears that of the three ind Epen Only Green would make serious inroads into traditional however it is also possible that the tories May become about their ability to defeat a party with internal problems and forget to do those things necessary to gain depending on the length of time until the writs Are the nip May have improved its that occurred when the tories underwent a bit of bloodletting Over their their image was but there was sufficient time before the election to mend their fences and for the nip to make More can a party which seems to be rip Ping itself apart be elected As a government the results of that election will depend on Many but it is evident that what the nip needs most is doonesbury delayed in transmission ;