The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The PC Party and Canadian Alliance must merge if the Liberals are to ever be unseated from federal power, say local conservatives. "In order to provide the Liberal Party with some form of formidable opposition, the right is going to have to unite," said Flin Flon City Councillor Tom Therien, a provincial member of the PC Party. "If we keep having these small parties, the Liberals will remain in power forever at this rate because there really is no formidable national party other than the Liberal Party. The rest are too small." Former Flin Flon mayor Gordon Mitchell, a PC supporter for some four decades, said he is "disappointed and surprised that they'd be so foolish as not to band together." "They're not going to do themselves or anybody any good by staying separate," he said. "What they're really doing is trying to walk the same path and call themselves different names. The majority of what they are involved in is similar, of course." Graham Craig, another former mayor, echoed those sentiments. "If they don't get their acts together, they're never going to hold office," said Craig, who leans toward the conservative philosophy. "And until such time as they decide to unite, the Liberals will maintain their stranglehold on Ottawa." The recent merger negotiations between the two right-wing parties have renewed enthusiasm among many conservatives who agree with the likes of Therien, Mitchell and Craig. However, The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that the emissary talks were declared over Sunday after efforts failed to bring the two sides together for a "last-ditch" meeting. "The emissary talks are dead," Tory House Leader Loyola Hearn, one of the PC representatives who had been part of the talks, told the newspaper. This does not necessarily mean the end of all consolidation negotiations, as party leaders have insisted they want a unified conservative party, the newspaper reported.
