A Turnip by My Side

 

If wishes were horses here’s what I’d ride:

The voters of the United Kingdom are in a terrible spot. The Conservative Party has let them down tremendously; but the only viable alternative is Labour, which is bound to be worse on the wokery.

The outcome I would hope for in the current campaign is for the Conservatives to be surpassed by Reform in the popular vote, so that at least at last a real alternative might exist. Then get Farage, Tice, Johnson, Truss, Rees-Mogg, Braverman huddled together there. Such shifts have happened in the past; Labour took out the Liberals long ago on the left.

America has reason to hope for a Trump win; and that is good. But even better if Kennedy were to actually outpoll Biden, and so free the American left from the backrooms and special interests. There used to be an honourable, hopeful, genuinely progressive left, in the days of JFK, of John XXIII, of the fight for civil rights, of the folk revival. It would be glorious to see it live again. 

In Canada, we are lucky. We are on track for the best result: a historic humiliation of the Trudeau Liberals at the hands of a competent and genuine opposition in the CPC. Should the CPC turn out to be a sham, like the UK Tories, we have the PPC at their heels. I feel it is vital to Canada’s future as a healthy democracy that Trudeau not only lose, but lose badly enough that he becomes a cautionary tale of how not to behave as prime minister; like Jimmy Carter or Richard Nixon are remembered in the States. This looks as if it is likely to happen.

Can we have, after that, a rejuvenated Canadian left? Are there any honest leftists, in the Kennedy mold, still alive in Canada? Anyone left in the honourable if misguided line of David Lewis, FR Scott, Bryce Mackasey, Eric Kierans, Lester Pearson? Singh has destroyed the legitimacy of the NDP; no sparks there. There is Elizabeth May, Jane Philpott, Jody Wilson-Raybould, maybe Tom Mulcair. But they all seem now like figures from the past, not possible futures.

In the Vatican, I could wish for Pope Francis to have a conversion experience—we are, after all, in the business of miracles. That would be best. 

Second best, he dies soon or resigns. The conclave, aware of the problems, picks someone quite different; someone charismatic in the mold of JPII, with the doctrinal clarity of Benedict XVI.

I do think all of this is possible, if not likely.