This will be kind of a personal commentary about who I am and where I come from politically. That is, if the kidney stones I am ‘enjoying’ this week allow me to get through it.
I started as a conservative at a pretty early age, as you can see in the picture above, which is the front page of the Toronto Star on June 11, 1957, when John Diefenbaker became Prime Minister designate. The kid in the victory picture, with a wide smile on his face, is me.
I have not changed a lot since then, but politics itself in Canada has shifted a great deal over the years. I am still a conservative, although sadly, at least federally, in a fractured party where those of us who have remained as middle-of-the-road Tories appear to be in a minority.
Over the years, I have been active in conservative politics on the provincial executive, as chief of staff to one premier and a senior advisor to two others, and as a voting delegate to several federal and provincial leadership contests.
But I was never a ‘Yes, Sir, No, Sir’ conservative, as we see in almost all of the political parties today. If I thought there was a problem with the direction in which a conservative government was headed, I did not hesitate to say so. That usually didn’t happen in public, but there was one memorable occasion where it did.
When I was on the Ontario PC executive, I think then, as the senior vice president, I attended an annual policy conference, which I believed was closed to the media. Around that time, I was also the Chair of the District Municipality of Muskoka. We had a great staff there. Some were union members, and others chose to stay out of the union.
At that time, the Davis government was proposing Bill 7, a labour bill that traded compulsory check-off (mandatory union membership) for a secret ballot for union members when voting on contract settlements, so that union bosses would not know how an individual voted.
I thought this was wrong, as did many of the people I worked with in Muskoka. I thought the policy meeting was a good place to deal with this, and I did so in no uncertain terms, stating, among other things, that a secret ballot was sacrosanct in our society and did not need to be used as a bargaining tool. Youthful idealism, I suppose.
When I turned around, I found myself face-to-face with a reporter from the Globe and Mail who wasn’t supposed to be there. Of course, the inevitable happened, and the media had a wonderful time spreading all of that around the next day.
I admit to being mildly chastised for this by the Premier’s office, but I am not sorry for speaking out on something I believe in.
So, why am I telling you all of this? There are two reasons.
First, there is Doppler of which I am the publisher. We are getting some reflections from people who say Doppler is a Liberal/left-wing rag, or words to that extent. That’s okay because most Liberals do not support the far left, and I have some family and a lot of friends who are Liberal supporters. I both value and respect them.
But when some responses and private comments get to the point where a reader states that we are left-wing whackos, and that person is going to do everything in their power to “destroy” Doppler, that is where I draw the line.
So, let’s deal with this.
Doppler is an online news source. Our news stories state the facts and only the facts and are not in any way partisan. That is our major contribution and the majority of our content. Our 200,000 readers seem to appreciate that. I have absolutely no knowledge of the political affiliations of our Doppler people. That is the way it should be.
But like all reliable news sources, online or otherwise, we have a commentary or opinion section, part of which is my weekly commentary, Listen Up! Its purpose is to stir things up and to get people with different points of view and different ideas to express them in a respectful way. We are generally successful at that.
Yes, I am a Red Tory, although I confess to having voted Liberal twice in my lifetime. I don’t believe any political party has all the answers and I respect some of the ideas that come forward from Liberals and New Democrats.
My partisan side may raise its head from time to time in my articles but that is what commentators do. However, I am not afraid to take on Conservatives, or anyone else for that matter, when I believe it is necessary to do so.
To touch briefly again on Donald Trump, I look with abhorrence at what is happening in the United States today. The President claims to be a Conservative and certainly has captured the Conservative Republican Party. He was elected primarily because he stood up to two serious problems, illegal immigration and increased crime. But he has acted more like a despot, a king, or a dictator, and I would be surprised if people had that in mind when they voted for him.
Trump jails his enemies and lets those whom he likes out of jail. He thrives in revenge politics. He cares little about the rule of law, especially when it rules against him, and he pounces on anyone who disagrees with him.
One senator is reported to have said privately that at least 20 of his Republican colleagues fear for their lives and the safety of their families with the threats they are getting from their own political base.
The man is building himself a palace at the White House. He recently posted a caricature of himself in a fighter jet, wearing a crown and dumping excrement on those he disagreed with. He loves revenge politics and thrives on pursuing an authoritarian state. He has even appointed an ‘Election Integrity Team,’ with a strong Trump acolyte at its head, to try to manipulate elections, and he is encouraging states to change electoral boundaries to favour Republicans.
The reason I decided to mention Donald Trump, is because some months ago I took the strong position that Pierre Poilievre should not be compared to the current American President, but recent events have proven me wrong, not in all aspects, some of them simply do not apply to the way we do things in Canada, but still, in too many ways to ignore.
Recently, Poilievre was pretty clear that Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be in jail. He did say Trudeau would have been charged criminally if the RCMP had been doing their job. Because the RCMP didn’t see it that way, he accused our renowned national police force of corruption. In fact, in a recent YouTube interview, he called the RCMP “frankly despicable,” a Trump tactic.
We don’t typically jail our former political leaders in Canada and while it may be just the tip of the iceberg, this is revenge politics, also a clear Trump tactic.
Pierre Poilievre does not respect the rule of law, saying that courts should have given the trucking convoy leadership people, convicted for the massive occupation of much of Ottawa a few years ago, lighter sentences. He is supporting his extreme right base, just as the rebels who stormed Congress on January 6 were supported by Trump, most of them receiving pardons from him after being lawfully convicted.
In 2003, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada merged with the Alliance Party, a successor of the Reform Party, both of which were right-wing organizations. For three years after that, Liberals under Jean Chrétien and John Turner were in power, but in 2006, Stephen Harper, formerly of the Alliance Party but now head of the Federal Conservative Party, became Prime Minister of Canada.
I did not have a problem with Stephen Harper. He was well to the right in conservative politics but did not impose his personal views on his caucus or the public. He governed between the middle and the far right of the conservative movement, keeping it relatively united.
Pierre Poilievre has not done that. He has consistently catered to the far right of conservative thinking, leaving many in that party, which has millions of members, feeling they were without a home. That is why, in my opinion, Mark Carney was able to slip through the enormous lead of the federal Tories to win government. Too many middle-of-the-road Tories saw Carney as more attuned to their views than Pierre Poilievre.
In spite of his efforts and his improvements in party standings, that is what cost Pierre Poilievre the national election.
In January, Conservatives will have the opportunity to decide whether Pierre Poilievre should stay or go as their national leader. Most leaders survive these reckonings, but some don’t. As a conservative, I hope Poilievre does not. With his present style, he will not win back disaffected Tories, and in spite of what happened in the United States, it is unlikely he can win government without them.
I would like to see a new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, one who can unite Tories and win an election. To do that, they have to draw support, not from Liberals but away from Mark Carney, who managed to sweep up so many Tories.
The Conservatives had a leader who could have done that, given a real chance, but they threw Erin O’Toole out, a highly respected and decorated Canadian, who, given the time he did not preciously have, could have united the party and impressed the country.
If they really want to win. Perhaps they should go back to Erin O’Toole on bended knee.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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