So I would like some of my readers to enlighten me as to a mystery that has perplexed me for a long, long time. A mystery so subtle and deep, I have pondered it for years and not obtained any answer. It is one of those strange unexplained quirks of reality that settled in the back of my head and never left, and I could only put it aside for some time. And that quirk can be expressed in the question: Why is Sheila Copps so hated? More importantly, why was she not seen as a credible Liberal leader?
I ask this now, because Copps no longer has a direct political career, and perhaps she may never now. So I can ask this at a safe distance without perhaps invoking too much of that mysterious passion. She's hated much more viscerally than other Liberals are. I mean, if it were just because she was a Liberal MP and cabinet minister for much of her career, then I would easily be able to understand, and in fact I would agree---I, for one, wouldn't have voted for her as Liberal leader, but then I'd not vote for any Liberal. And there are lots of Liberal hacks who aren't hated the way she was hated.
One of the things I've seen people bring up against her is the GST promise that she campaigned on. Well, yeah. The Liberals broke that promise. Old, old news. But, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't she keep her own promise? She resigned. She ran for election again and won, yeah, but that's fair under our system: the people of Hamilton have every right to forgive her and place her morally in the clear. In a democracy, you can launder yourself.
Another thing people bring up is her unpalatability in Quebec, particularly all that smarmy flagwavery. Some of the people who hate her hardly strike me as the people who care about her unpalatability in Quebec. But it's a legitimate question about her electability. Even despite her flagwavery, however, as Heritage minister I gather she was quite popular with the Quebec arts community, and there is no stronger bastion of sovereigntism than that. She was liked better than Martinite Liberal MP Helene Scherrer who came from Quebec! And I've seen her on Quebec francophone television giving interviews about life, the universe, and everything. She is fluent and personable in French and quite understanding of her context, and she's treated well by her interviewers.
And by what we've seen of Martin, I can hardly imagine why some Liberals might want to vote for him over her. I mean, it would be hard for her to do a worse job than him, and she'd have inherited Chretien's skilled team rather than Earnscliffe and the Keystone Kops.
So what gives? For those of you who hate her more than any other Liberal, why? For those of you who think she's more unelectable than any other Liberal, why?
I have a theory as to why, by the way, but I won't share it now.
Posted by: Mandos | December 03, 2005 at 10:19 PM