Alberta and its energy sector languish under a Trudeau Liberal government. An upstart populist rival nibbles on the right of the Conservatives. Feelings of injustice and alienation fuel a Western independence movement. It seems a lot like the 1980s, and that gives Canadians all the more reason to listen to someone who navigated those waters. In his new book, “Do Something!” Preston Manning speaks to those issues while encouraging Canadians to get into the process..“I feel that democracy is in trouble,” Manning told a Regina crowd of 100, the third gathering of his seven-city book tour. “The voter turnout is declining, and the number of people that just express just a lack of confidence in the institutions and in the parties and candidates.”.Manning’s book includes 365 ways that Canadians can make a difference. The conservative patriarch is 77 now, but has his mind on those younger. Whereas Conservative parties won one-third of elections in the 20th Century, he wants them to win two-thirds of the 21St Century ballots..The task of reaching youth for conservatism starts with getting them interested in democracy. “If you tell it as a story that started 26 centuries ago in Ancient Greece…rather than as a sort of political science doctrine, I think you’ll get a lot further with the younger people,” Manning says..Manning says millennials reject the left-right spectrum, which leaves politicos searching for some other axis they might identify with, such as direct democracy vs elite rule. .A thoughtful Manning wonders why millennials working at Starbucks get 15 hours of training, but lawmakers get zero. Even a sausage maker gets more training than MPs..“Making laws is a little bit like making sausage,” he paraphrased Otto von Bismarck. “You probably don’t want to know everything that’s in there.”.As for right-wing political recipes, Manning believes they do need to change from time to time. He mentioned the efforts of Reform, the Alliance, and then the merger with the Progressive Conservatives as federal examples, with the Saskatchewan Party being a provincial example.. Preston Manning book signingPreston Manning signed a copy of his book “Do Something!” in Regina, SK .“You don’t want to do these realignments everyday, but every 10, 15 years if you can, look at the structure to know if we’ve got to change direction in order to be more relevant.”.Manning knows it’s tempting for the political establishment to look down on new populist parties. He says Trump and Brexit are examples enough to show why they ignore populism at their peril..“The worst possible reaction is to ignore what they’re doing and saying or to be contemptuous, that it’s a bunch of ignorant people that don’t know what’s good for them, they’re probably people chasing after some charismatic leader, little leader with no more than glib.”.Manning says the Western independence movement is rooted in legitimate concerns..“The basic root of it is that the West is treated unfairly in the federation, treated unfairly in the constitution, it’s unfairly represented in the federal power in the House of Commons – particularly in the Senate, and in the federal civil service. It’s unfairly represented with respect to Equalization and federal transfers and the joint provincial programs. It’s unfairly treated with its inability to get unobstructed transportation corridors to the Atlantic and the Pacific.”.Manning – whose father Ernest was Alberta’s longest-serving premier – is on Jason Kenney’s Fair Deal Panel. Manning says those concerned with Western alienation must determine what fairness looks like. From there, the broadest coalition should be pulled together to push towards those specific reforms..As for independence, Manning believes “much more work has to be done by the people that are advocating secession to make it a credible option.” He believes that an independent Alberta and Saskatchewan would have much less clout than a united independent West. Besides that, a constitution needs to be proposed so people know exactly what this new country would be..Although Manning welcomes political realignments, he wishes that conservatives worked less in silos and reached to like-minded organizations and think tanks and even between provincial and federal levels..Preston is maintaining the Manning Foundation, but has released its networking conference to embrace a new identity and name. He believes conservatives would be much stronger if they networked even more..“Right now there’s seven – nominally at least – conservative provincial governments in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick is hanging by a thread, and on a good day the CAQ in Québec, and PEI. If put the door knocking capacity, the fundraising capacity, the memberships of those partners together with the federal party you have the strongest political force in the country. It’s three and a half times the size of the federal Liberal party – if it acted as an army. But if everyone acts as a platoon, then we don’t have that strength.”.The Manning “Do Something!” tour will be in Edmonton Friday February 28, Victoria on Saturday February 29, and Monday March 2 in Vancouver..Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan Affairs Columnist for the Western Standard. He is also a Research Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and is the former Saskatchewan Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
