Bill Blaikie
November 17, 2008
Effective Defender of the Status Quo
November 25, 2002
It’s hard to fault Bill Blaikie. For most of his political career he has personified the ideal NDP Member of Parliament - principled, consistent, passionate about the plight of the less fortunate, willing to buck trends and adopt unpopular causes. Bill has been a consistent performer in the House of Commons and is one of the few MPs who really believes in the democratic power of a debating chamber, a throwback to an earlier, perhaps more noble, era of Canadian politics where the great issues of the day were debated by the great political personalities in the Parliament of Canada.
Bill Blaikie tugs at the heartstrings of many New Democrats. He represents a direct line from the most famous of NDP personalities - his leadership campaign launch in Winnipeg’s Stella Mission evoked images of J.S. Woodsworth and Blaikie’s United Church credentials and oratorical skills remind New Democrats of Tommy Douglas. Blaikie’s success in garnering the support of many of his caucus colleagues is a tribute to the admiration he commands within the party’s parliamentary group. In Blaikie, other NDP MPs see a person who appreciates and supports the role of the MP and who believes that the political vocation is a noble calling. Blaikie is willing to defend the station of his fellow NDP MP’s and he has become somewhat of a champion of beleaguered politicians everywhere.
Bill’s spirited defence of parliament and the parliamentarian’s role in Canadian political life has the potential to become a weakness. He risks, and I’d argue that this has already happened, becoming the defender of the status quo. For NDP members yearning for change, at least within their own party, if not the country, Bill Blaikie sounds like an apologist for the same old same old. For Canadians at large, Bill must sound anachronistic, a defender of a quaint, but bygone, era where elected representatives were entrusted to speak on behalf constituents - in contrast to today’s hyper-energized information environment where constituents seek information from a variety of sources and then pick the advocacy vehicle of their choice, more often than not a special interest or pressure group, and not a political party.
For NDP members, Bill’s sometimes-cranky defence of the status quo is an impediment to his leadership aspirations. While trying to defend NDP performance Bill can come off as defensive and thin-skinned. There is a fine line between reminding NDP members of the good, but largely anonymous work the leader and caucus have done, and sounding like a dour professor scolding students for not paying attention. Blaikie’s impatience with those not sufficiently thankful for the work of their Ottawa representatives gives short shrift to committed members who just want to see the party in a more competitive position.
Bill Blaikie’s stated and written policies aren’t worth reviewing here. Suffice to say that Bill would be an effective articulator of the NDP status quo, policy-wise. Therein lies the rub. People hoping for party reform won’t get it under Bill Blaikie as leader. He may make modest changes to how the party is run but he has never been very engaged in the workings of the federal party, preferring instead to maintain and strengthen his Manitoba political base. To the extent that Gary Doer and the Manitoba NDP are on the cutting edge of the NDP in Canada, and they are, Bill may bring some new ideas to the federal scene, but, for all intents and purposes, Bill Blaikie is a “take no chances” candidate, a person that may have the ability to energize the traditional base and temporarily bring back a dozen or so lost seats.
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June 25th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
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