Liberals uniting progressive-minded Canadians

The Liberal party has attracted a core group of former Progressive Conservatives, proving that the Liberal party under Stéphane Dion unites progressive-minded Canadians from both the left and the right...

Key members of Progressive Canadians to join federal Liberals

GLORIA GALLOWAY. Globe and Mail, Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 1:04 AM EST

OTTAWA — The entire executive and many senior members of the small political party formed by Progressive Conservatives who rejected the merger with the Canadian Alliance have decided to join the Liberals.

The Progressive Canadian Party, which expropriated the PC logo and adhered to the ideals of the old Tory party, will likely continue, said Tracy Parsons, who quit as party leader two weeks ago.

But Ms. Parsons will be taking out a Liberal membership, as will party president Jim Love, the four other members of the executive, several members of the national council, all of the CPC's Quebec organizers and many riding presidents.

The executive made the decision to quit en masse. It was a surprise when the others followed.

There was a realization, said Ms. Parsons, that Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion was offering policy options that closely mirrored their own.

“As a political party you are always trying to find your differentiators [with other parties] and I found that when Stéphane Dion became the leader of the Liberal Party that that differentiator was harder and harder to locate,” explained Ms. Parsons, who lives in Truro, N.S., and had been party leader since 2005.

“He had a lot of the same visions for the country that we had. And, of course, the Liberal Party has sort of moved into that Progressive Conservative space anyway.”

There were also some key points of departure with other Progressive Canadian Party members, she said.

“So when you start having some fundamental disagreements on direction inside the party, you have to start asking yourself where your energies are best spent. And if I am going to put out that much energy I would like to do good for this country,” Ms. Parsons said.

The Progressive Canadians are not large in number. They fielded just 25 candidates in the last federal election and took 0.1 per cent of the popular vote.

But the move will be seen as a shot in the arm for Mr. Dion, who has been derided by the Conservatives as a weak leader and who, according to a recent survey, is not as widely recognized by Canadians as Mario from Nintendo's video-game series.

Ms. Parsons said neither she nor any of the other defectors have ever been Liberal.

Her own association with the old Progressive Conservatives goes back two decades. “I was active in riding associations, president's council and I worked as a field organizer when [Jean] Charest was the leader,” she said.

“Ten years ago I would have said of course I was crossing to the enemy. But, if you look at being a Progressive Conservative towards the end of that party, those lines were becoming incredibly blurred under [former prime ministers] Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.”

Not surprisingly, Ms. Parsons said she found the federal Liberals “very welcoming. I am sure they were surprised.”

Senator Marie Poulin, the president of the federal Liberal Party, said the Liberals take the new arrivals as evidence of their leader's broad appeal to Canadians of many political backgrounds.
(Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071117.tories17/BNStory/National/home)

Tracy Parsons and her colleagues will join prominent former Progressive Conservatives such as Scott Brison, Garth Turner and Belinda Stronach in the Liberal fold.