Old Liberals

I have been seeing some old Liberals pop their heads up recently to criticize the current Liberal government. These old Liberals have been around for some time and they are often used by the news media to provide the "Liberal" point of view on their panel shows even though they have not been part of the party establishment for quite some time.

Some have asked why would these old Liberals come out against the government?

There seems to be several theories.  The one I see the most is that they are Blue Liberals who do not like the tack the current government is taking.  After all Justin Trudeau did not follow the old Liberal trick of campaigning from the left but governing from the right.  He actually campaign from the centre-left and he as governed from there since his government was elected. 

Maybe there is some truth to that but I believe it is much more personal than that.  You see from the election of Pierre Trudeau as Leader of the Liberal Party, to when Justin Trudeau was elected as leader, the Liberal Party had been under the thumb of the same power brokers.  They were the movers and shakers behind the party and they provided their heft in making certain that the party continued to realize success.  In return they expected loyalty from the Leaders of the Party towards them and their interests.  Most of the party apparatus was connected to those movers and shakers in some way.  There would have been no way that those who were part of that apparatus could have been employed by the Party if they were not.

Justin Trudeau was expected to be another in that line of Party Leaders who were beholden to those old Liberal grandees.  However, Justin Trudeau did not believe the same thing.  I believe the fact that the Liberals were reduced to Third Party status lead to the weakening of the hold of the old Liberal establishment on the Party.  Suddenly with Mr. Harper enjoying electoral success and the NDP being poised to actually form a government many in the Liberal Party realized things had to change.

I have mentioned in this space before that one of the accomplishments of Justin Trudeau, for which he receives little to no credit, was his remaking of the Liberal Party.  Ironically, he did what his father did.  When Trudeau the Senior won the leadership he cleaned out the old Liberal establishment that had existed since Mackenzie King.  When Justin Trudeau was elected he cleaned out the old Liberal establishment that was created by his father.  Although Justin Trudeau's cleaning was much more thorough than his father's.

That is one of the biggest reasons for the lack of support of old Liberals for the current Trudeau government.  Part of it is the direction the Trudeau government is taking Canada but much more of it is that fact that Justin Trudeau cleaned house.  The old Liberal establishment was swept away with only a few vestiges of it left over when he was elected PM.  Since then he has made it a clean sweep.  Needless to say that members of the old Liberal establishment did not like to be cast aside like that.  That was disloyal on the part of Mr. Trudeau and to be frozen out of the many patronage appointment that the PM can make just added injury to insult.  

I believe that Mr. Trudeau knew that there would be blowback for his actions but I also believe that he realized Canada is changing and that the old Liberal establishment, established in the late 60s to early 70s, would have driven the Liberal Party to near extinction.  (With the enthusiastic assistance of both the Conservatives and the NDP)  So he dragged the Liberal Party into the 21st Century and left the old guard behind.  In the long run the Liberal Party and the country will be better off as a result of his actions but that will not stop members of the now deposed old guard from shouting from the cheap seats.