As a journalist, sometimes I can’t help but feel sorry for the people I interview.
About a dozen years ago, Dr. Jon Gerrard, then leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party, held a well-promoted open house in Flin Flon.
His goal was to turn residents on to his centrist brand of politics. He sought to win over voters in a community that scratches the back of the NDP but also loves to complain about how their backs aren’t always scratched in return.
As I ventured to the Victoria Inn banquet room that evening, I wondered how many people Gerrard’s open house would attract. Would it be a full house? A handful? A couple?
The answer, at least for as long as I was there, was zero. Other than Gerrard and two colleagues, the place was emptier than a Trekkie’s little black book.
Gerrard was sure happy to see me. When I asked to interview him, he and I sat amid rows of empty chairs and talked politics and vision.
During his years as Liberal leader, Gerrard made commendable efforts to reach Flin Flon voters. Accessible and approachable, he was for a time the most visible party leader in this community.
But none of it got him anywhere, either in Flin Flon or Manitoba as a whole. The Liberals never came close to winning Flin Flon and today have exactly one seat – the one belonging to Gerrard – in the entire province.
Gerrard’s personal popularity in his Winnipeg riding is all that stands between the Liberals and a legislature shutout. Once he retires – and he is 67 now – the party is all but certain to have zero seats.
Diehard supporters will point out that the Liberals have had zero seats before, in the early 1980s, only to bounce back with 20 seats to become the official opposition in 1988.
Yet in the very next election, in 1990, the Grits were down to seven seats in the 57-seat legislature. Then three. Then one, then two and now back to one again.
The biggest challenge the Liberals face is that there is really no overriding purpose in their existence at the provincial level.
Manitoba is a fairly humdrum province of 1.28 million people. Do we really need three major parties? Saskatchewan and the much larger BC only have two (though BC’s legislature now has one Green Party MLA).
Besides, Manitoba’s two main parties, the New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives, have done such a fine job of carving out centrist positions that there isn’t much of a middle for the Liberals to occupy anymore.
The Liberals have spent decades flailing, desperately trying to back policies that are a) a departure from those offered by the NDP and PCs and b) popular with the public at large.
And they have attempted to do this in an environment where they receive little media attention, a curse we can blame on their extremely limited public support.
I have nothing against Gerrard or his party. I just wonder how much longer the Liberals will keep pretending – with time, money and resources – that Manitoba is a three-party province when everyone else knows it isn’t.
