Major Acid's E-Rag
It Strikes Me...
That Paul Martin and Mikhail Gorbachev
Have Something in Common
Paul Martin and the Gorbachev
Effect
Drawing historical parallels is something of a fool’s game, which
explains why I am about to do just that. The parallel is not perfect.
Perhaps this should rule out parallel as the word of choice, but then
social science is not really science, either, so parallel is like hand
grenades and horseshoes – close enough.
The parallel is this: Paul Martin appears in danger of going the way of
Mikhail Gorbachev, going that is, into the dustbin of history.
If you remember Gorbachev, you probably remember a man with an odd
birthmark dominating his balding head, a hazy memory of the last leader
of the Soviet Union, that Bogeyman that American Republicans, after
their fashion of re-imagining history to make it convenient, claim
Ronald Reagan put the political cowboy boots to.
In the Republican fantasy world, Reagan won the Cold war, but he didn’t.
Gorbachev walked away from the Cold War of his own accord.
In the western media driven imagination, the end of the Cold War came
with the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the wall didn’t fall because
Reagan showed the commies his strength by beating up a small contingent
of Cubans in Grenada, thereby flaunting the monetary black hole of his
endless military spending; nor did it fall because, in an open-mike
blunder, Reagan betrayed his willingness to nuke the Russians thereby
scaring them witless. The Berlin Wall fell because the dispirited East
German political machine realized its own lassitude, called on Russia
for troops to quell the growing internal demand for Western-style
freedoms – and Gorbachev said no.
That one decision – that single moment when Gorbachev, head of the
second most powerful political/military complex on earth, said no – that
moment is the single most important political decision in recent
history. It was a supreme act of political courage, something that
Reagan, in his wildest fantasies, could never conceive.
As hard as it may be to conceive, Gorbachev was probably a democrat.
Under his watch, elections in Russia actually came to matter, and he put
himself out there as a candidate.
Russians, shocked at their sudden demotion from superpower bear to
pathetic circus performing bear, voted for the warm and fuzzy and
drunken cartoon bear, Boris Yeltsin. Frankly, a duck with a speech
impediment could have beaten Gorbachev.
Gorbachev grew up in and prospered under the Communist party system. He
was the ultimate pragmatist. He knew – like Paul Martin knows – that it
is possible to change the system from within, but only if one can gain
control of the system.
Think of Gorbachev as the consummate company man, zealous in his job,
working his way through the perilous world of Russian politics, gingerly
walking the same corridors of power that the KGB stalked. If he were
going to change the system, he would have to be in control of the
system. When his turn at power came, he did change things. He made his
decision in East Germany, and two years later the world saw the end of
the Soviet Union. When frantic, old-line communists reacted by trying
forcibly to oust Yeltsin, Gorbachev saved Yeltsin. In doing so, he
sealed his own political fate.
Think of Paul Martin as the Canadian Gorbachev bent on changing the
system from within, able to do so only after he gained control. Yes,
Martin operates on a smaller scale; Canada is not, despite our
collective belief, a world power. No decision Martin can make will
reshape the world in the way that Gorbachev did. Yet Martin made
significant changes to politics as usual in Canada.
Like Gorbachev, Martin worked his way up through the political system,
the loyal company man, the ultimate pragmatist who supported his party
and his boss, ultimately succeeding even in the most difficult job in
Canadian politics.
Canada doesn’t have a KGB (no, CSIS will never be that competent) but
Canada does have the Finance portfolio. Increase taxes; cut programs;
set spending priorities that inevitably leave someone’s sacred cow off
the list. Suffer the wrath of the public. Michael Wilson, who apparently
harboured leadership dreams in the wake of Mulroney’s tenure, failed to
survive that wrath. When Mulroney left, Wilson’s career was finished.
Paul Martin, however, transcended, surviving even the cheery Liberal
lies about canceling the GST that were partly responsible for Chretien’s
continuing election success. As Chretien and Copps tap-danced around the
lies, unable even to muster the tiniest hint of remorse, Martin got on
with business.
There’s no world re-shaping decision for Martin to face like Gorbachev’s
East Germany choice, but Martin did make a clear choice in a politically
murderous situation (in a politely Canadian metaphorical way) – the
Sponsorship Scandal.
Martin could have buried the scandal, even by so simple a measure as
calling an election early. An early call would have ended the Public
Accounts Committee’s work before the members’ butts were settled in the
chairs, and that was certainly what Liberal old-timers wanted. That was
politics the old way, pure expediency driving the agenda. Don’t doubt
for a moment that Martin knew how volatile the Auditor General’s
revelations could be as played out before a committee that included
members of the loyal opposition; yet, in a fit of unprecedented
political honesty, he let the scandal play.
That was not politics as usual. Politics as usual is McGuinty knowing
that he would face a major financial problem when elected (told so by
his own people) then continuing blithely to make promises he knew he
couldn’t keep, promptly breaking those promises shortly after winning
his election. It is banking on voter amnesia to forget his lies by the
next election.
Politics as usual is Harper securing his win for the new
Reform/Conservative party by making a deal with one of his opponents,
then promptly breaking his word. It is pretending that extreme (or
perhaps just provocative?) comments made by his own party members don’t
really count and shouldn’t be believed and no one should worry about
them.
Politics as usual is the NDP leader making ridiculous statements in an
election knowing that he will never have to live up to any promises he
makes himself because he will never win the election. (Although, to be
fair, Layton’s homeless comments were stunningly over the top, even for
the NDP.) It is backpedaling madly after realizing that he may be the
junior partner in a de facto coalition with a man he effectively accused
of murder.
Martin could have played politics as usual, but he didn’t. He let the
political wall fall, and in this he signaled the potential beginning of
a new era in Canadian politics, one in which politicians actually do
stand to account for what happens on their watch. How different is this
new world? Can you imagine any other scenario in which former
Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark would be campaigning for a
Liberal?
Now, like Gorbachev watching his newly created world pass him over,
Martin in his new Canadian world faces the spectre of a political
thrashing. Now, like the old guard communists in Russia frantic at
seeing their grip on power slip away, the back room Liberals see their
own one-party state disappearing, too. There may be nothing they can do.
No parallel is perfect, as I said, and this one breaks down. In Russia,
Gorbachev’s changes seemed suddenly fragile as the world watched tanks
rolling up to a building threatening Boris Yeltsin until Gorbachev
stepped forward to stay the communist hand.
There won’t be Canadian tanks, led by Jean Chretien, surrounding
Harper’s campaign headquarters, and Chretien won’t be demanding that
control be given back to Canada’s natural governing party. It’s not that
I can’t see Chretien doing that; it’s just that I’m not sure he could
find enough working tanks to surround the building.
