LARRY ZOLF:
Stéphane Dion and friends
CBC News Viewpoint | Aug. 22, 2006 | More from Larry Zolf
Veteran journalist and Canadian political expert Larry Zolf is a regular contributor to CBC News Online. Larry has been a critic, reporter, producer and consultant for CBC news and current affairs since he joined the CBC in 1962. Born and raised in North End Winnipeg, the hotbed of general strikes and socialism, Larry has covered stories such as integration in Mississippi and the October Crisis in Quebec. He was one of the hosts of the CBCs flagship current affairs television show "This Hour Has 7 Days." He is now retired.
The Stéphane Dion candidacy for the Liberal leadership is gaining momentum. Linda Deibel and the Sunday Star did a loving piece on Dion as the real underdog in this race. The Star sees Dion as a frontrunner.
The biggest boost the Dion constituency has obtained comes from Canada's best journalist, Peter C. Newman. Newman argues the alternation of Liberal leadership, French and English is the best Liberal tradition and the key to Liberal victory.
Says Newman, it's the French turn for the Liberal leadership. Newman says Dion should be the next Liberal leader.
Nobody seems to be worrying about Dion's ability to win Quebec. Dion after all was the author of the Clarity Act so hated by Quebec nationalists.
It was Dion who was the most talented and spirited defender of federalism in Quebec. Dion has many enemies in Quebec.
There's also Harper's present close relationship with Liberal premier Jean Charest and his Quebec Liberal machine to contend with. Charest and Dion are not close.
Charest says Quebec is a nation. That's a very popular notion in Quebec. Dion does not quite agree.
There is also the problem of Dion's English. Previous Liberal francophone prime ministers Laurier, St. Laurent and Trudeau were fluently bilingual. Laurier won in 1896, 1900, 1904 and 1908. St. Laurent won massively in both English Canada and Quebec. Trudeau did the same in 1968 and 1974.
English Canadian Liberals worry most about Dion's ability to appeal to English speaking Canadians. Still, Dion is a brilliant thinker and a very experienced politician. Dion is determined to shore up his support with English Liberals.
In a very strange move, Dion has embraced David Orchard, the fanatic free trade fighter and ex-Tory. Orchard is now a Liberal.
I first saw David Orchard in action in Toronto at a book launch for one of his anti-free trade, anti-American books. Gathered at the book launch was a motley crew of ultra lefties, New Lefties and left wing radicals, all on the fringes of the NDP. All were bitterly anti-free trade and anti American.
I have watched David Orchard as he moved into the Conservative party taking his army of leftists with him. It was Orchard who came second to Mackay in the Tory leadership race. It was Orchard who won it for Mackay on the promise that Mackay would not merge the Tories with the Canadian Alliance.
Mackay broke his promise to Orchard. Mackay represented the true Conservative small 'c' neo-con conservatives. Mackay had to deal with Harper's Alliance party to form a united party of the right. Mackay ended the Tory romance with David Orchard, which Joe Clark had first endorsed.
Now David Orchard has become a Liberal and a key supporter of Stéphane Dion. Obviously Orchard hopes to push Dion into his strident views on free trade and Canadian nationalism.
In his Tory days, David Orchard was bitterly opposed to the Liberals. Orchard was then prone to revisionist history.
The Tories, said Orchard, were anti-American and pro-Canadian. The Liberals were always pro-American. Orchard argued that Sir John A. had rejected reciprocity trade with the United States but Laurier had embraced it.
Mackenzie King, Orchard argued, was a secret free trader. Orchard gave Mackenzie King no credit for his labour and welfare state reforms.
Orchard even defends Tory Prime Minister R.B. Bennett for his tariff wars with the United States. Bennett was a good guy in Orchard's books.
This is the same R.B. Bennett who was Canada's most hated prime minister. In the 1930's horse driven Ford chassis were called Bennett buggies. Slum shacks were called Bennettvilles.
Bennett promised to turn "the iron heel of ruthlessness" against all radical groups in Canada. Bennett put the single unemployed in camps. When the unemployed rebelled and made a march on Ottawa. Bennett stopped them in the famous bloody Regina riot of 1935.
To Orchard all this Tory history meant nothing. Bennett was a true Tory, Orchard style. To Orchard, Mulroney is Satan himself.
David Orchard does have his supporters in Saskatchewan and In Toronto. Orchard now lives and operates out of my Toronto Danforth riding.
I met David Orchard on the Danforth during the Bosnian crisis. Orchard was pro-Serb. I was opposed to the Serb ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian Muslims. Said i: "I prefer the people of San Francisco to the people of Belgrade." Orchard then said I was demonizing the Serbs.
I've been an Orchard watcher for many years. Dion must be desperate for some of Orchard's lefties in the West and Toronto. Orchard will do Dion's reputation far more harm than good.
David Orchard may be Dion's tar baby. Dion needs better English advisors than he has now got.
LETTERS:
Zolf claims to have attended a book launch for "one of [Orchard's] anti-free trade and anti-American books," as if there were several, perhaps a whole series! There is only one book by Orchard, his best-selling and highly regarded, The Fight for Canada: Four Centuries of Resistance to American Expansionism, published in '93 and translated into French in '98.
At the book launch in '93 in Toronto- which I also attended - Zolf claims that he saw "gathered ... a motley crew of ultra lefties, New Lefties and left wing radicals, all at the fringes of the NDP. All were bitterly anti-free trade and anti-American."
How Zolf knows what "all" over 100 people at the launch were thinking would be interesting to find out, but he should also explain why, for instance, David Suzuki, historian Kenneth McNaught (who wrote the foreword to Orchard's book) and professor Abe Rotstein, all who were in attendance, should be regarded as "ultra lefties."
Some of those present were also on the "fringes of the Liberal party," as that party under the leadership of John Turner had fought the Free Trade Agreement hard in the 1988 election, harder than the NDP under Broadbent, something Zolf has clearly forgotten. (Why assume, though, that anyone present was "at the fringes," rather than a bona fide participant in Canada's political parties?)
As for Orchard being "bitterly opposed to the Liberals," it is clear that Zolf has yet to read Orchard's book, where he clearly expresses his high regard for two well known Liberals, John Turner and Pierre Elliott Trudeau!
Before Larry Zolf attempts another smear on David Orchard, perhaps it wouldn't be too much to ask that he know the subject of his obsession better, first by reading his book and then allowing someone with his or her journalistic abilities intact to check his information before it appears in print. If Zolf has a point to make about Orchard he should present his case without mindless redbaiting ("ultra lefties") and name calling ("fanatic," "anti-American").
Expecting better from a "veteran journalist and a Canadian political expert."
—Marjaleena Repo | Saskatoon
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