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The Hill Times
| 28 August, 2000 | BACK | NEXT
He believes politics is now 'more
negative'
Mykytyshyn: "Tories will lose
official party status by Christmas
by Angelo
Persichilli
The Hill Times
John Mykytyshyn, the bad boy of the Canadian Alliance
Party, who was forced to resign recently after he said the party could not
make inroads into the Atlantic provinces because Maritimers were dependent
on government handouts and didn't want to work, says the level of debate in
Canadian federal politics "is becoming more negative."
Last week, Mr. Mykytyshyn, president of Canadian Voter Contact, a
political consulting firm, told The Hill Times that there is an
"unfortunate increase of personal attacks" in politics
today.
"There is always a degree of negativity in the political
campaigns but there used to be some respect and there used to be a great
difference between people and policy. Now there are personal attacks,"
he told The Hill Times last week.
On Aug. 11, Mr. Mykytyshyn, while at a political conference in
Vancouver, was taped by a Progressive Conservative while he was on a panel
with other pollsters when he was asked a question about the Alliance's
chances in the next general election. He told the crowd of 200 that the
party would have the hardest time in the East.
Said Mr. Mykytyshyn: "The simple reason is that eastern
provinces believe in handouts and 'Give me a cheque for doing
nothing,'" he said, according to the tape, which was leaked to The
Halifax Chronicle Herald. "They don't want to do like their ancestors
did and work for a living and go where the jobs are. Probably, the Alliance
won't go over as well there."
Mr. Mykytyshyn resigned his position with the executive of the
party two weeks ago.
Mr. Mykytyshyn, who last week described the conference as an
exchange of ideas and views at an intellectual professional level on the
mechanics of politics, also tried to explain his controversial comments
which were immediately pounced on by Liberals and Tories alike.
"I made a simple communication mistake, I was trying to make
a valid analysis and interpretation of the election prospects based on
existing party policy," he said, however, adding that he made a
mistake. "I completely failed to articulate that point as well as I
should have, but it was at a conference with the room filled with people of
various political affiliation and I was aware of that."
He added: "I have been attending those conferences as a
spectator and as a speaker for 10 years and this is the first time that I
have seen participants use any of the content."
Mr. Mykytyshyn said, "In this case, you had Tories in the
room that did not respect the professionalism for political personal
interest, which says something about the individuals and also about the
leadership of the party and the desperation of the current state of the
federal PC."
Mr. Mykytyshyn acknowledged, however, that it is not right to make
a "blanket statement that is accurate about any group in
society," but declared: "I was talking about the chances of
Alliance to be successful and the difficulties they would have moving
voters to their cause based upon this specific policies that relate to that
region of the country."
Besides, Mr. Mykytyshyn said he understood that the sessions were
not supposed to be recorded.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mykytyshyn said that his decision to resign was his
alone, but declined to say if he was being treated fairly by Alliance or
Stockwell Day.
Said Mr. Mykytyshyn: "It wouldn't be fair to make a
comment."
He said that he has "already been treated in a particular
way. Comments where attributed to me in the media, Stock said that the
comments should be investigated and he told the party president to do that.
I talked to the party president and, given another day of thought, I
decided that it would be in the best interest of the party that I
resign."
As for himself, Mr. Mykytyshyn said he has one change planned for
future activities: "Yes. Being more humble."
Meanwhile, Canadian Alliance MP Jason Kenney, the party's finance
critic and a senior strategist, recently said his party plans to eliminate
business subsidies to Atlantic Canada within two years of forming a
government.
"We would eliminate regional development subsidies that pick
winners and losers in the private sector, in every part of the
country," he said.
"There is a disproportionate concentration of business
subsidies in Atlantic Canada," he said. "These subsidies are
hugely inefficient.
The Alliance party would scrap the Atlantic Canada Opportunities
Agency, which has put more than $2.5-billion into the four Eastern
provinces in the last decade.
Recently, federal and provincial politicians have been talking a
lot about the Atlantic provinces, creating a war of words between the
premiers of Alberta and Newfoundland over "intolerance" toward
have-not provinces.
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (Saint-Maurice, Que.) in June
announced in Halifax a $700-million cash infusion for the region. His
announcement was denounced as a vote-buying scheme. Mr. Chrétien has
admitted he hopes the five-year program to modernize the Atlantic Canada
economy will win back a region that shut out the Liberals in the 1997
election.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mykytyshyn, who is still involved with the Canadian
Alliance and is a political animal, assessed the political lay of the land.
From his vantage point, he said he doesn't expect to see any change in the
leadership of the Liberal Party and believes that the Liberals want to wait
for two things to happen before going to the polls. He said the Grits want
to give Mr. Day the opportunity to show himself in the House in the hopes
he will self-destruct and they want to see Tory Leader Joe Clark lose
official party status in the Commons.
Moreover, Mr. Mykytyshyn said he believes that "if the rumour
comes to fruition, there is a good chance that by Christmas or New Year's
Eve we could have one less party in the House of Commons."
He said he also believes that it makes no difference to the
Alliance if the Liberal leader is Jean Chrétien or Paul Martin because
"they are the same."
Declared Mr. Mykytyshyn: "There might be a temporary euphoria
for a new leader that could wash away pretty quickly in a campaign"
because the change wouldn't be radical like the one in Alliance.
"There is a substantive difference between Manning and Day
while Martin and Chrétien are very similar. They have been in government together
for a long time; they support the same economic and social policies.
Furthermore, the two are very close in age. There is a generational
difference between Manning and Day, while Martin and Chrétien are the
same."
As for the upcoming Sept. 11 byelections, he said he believes that
there should be no surprises, and, referring to the byelection in Nova
Scotia where Joe Clark is running, he said, "it takes a complete idiot
to lose that one." Nonetheless, for Mr. Mykytyshyn said Mr. Clark's
problems are not in the by-election "but with more defections from his
caucus".
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