When the Gods Changed: Book Review

The courageous American who reads When the Gods Changed with an open mind, will be amply rewarded with insights on how to improve their own dysfunctional politics.

Peter C. Newman

(CALGARY, Alberta) - It’s the rare American who actually knows anything accurate about Canada—or even cares. But here we are, living in what Robertson Davies called North America’s attic. (I consider Davies to be Canada’s greatest novelist—and certainly among the top ten of the world—in the same company as writers such as John Steinbeck, Ken Follett and Wilbur Smith.)

Since we attic lodgers elected a conservative government on May 2, 2011, it’s no surprise that conservatives on the floor below have been saying (through comments on this site) that it’s now only a matter of time until the Canadian people—who have now seen the light— will follow the American political example.

When the Gods Changed is the latest (and twenty-sixth) book published by Canada’s premier political writer, Peter C. Newman. The “gods” to whom he alludes, is the Liberal Party of Canada. The theme of his book is straightforward: The Canadian people did not so much elect a conservative government, as they unelected a Liberal government.

Let me immediately clear up one point of confusion. Canada is a liberal country. As the defeated Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said: “There’s a spine of consistency in the Liberal party that has resulted in a Canada that has a centre of gravity consistently five percent to the left of the United States.” (This is not the kind of assessment that allows for actual numbers, but the fact remains true.) But as Newman writes, “The demise of the Liberals, if it comes, will be nothing to celebrate. We have a polarized, two-party system to the south, an example to be avoided by anyone in search of relatively civil and efficient governance. Much will be lost if the [Liberal] ship goes down.”

Many Americans hate liberals but, really, they have simply been fooled into believing that liberals are “bad” people. Ann Coulter, the doyen of political nuttiness wrote in Treason:

“Liberals have a preternatural gift for striking a position on the side of treason. You could be talking about Scrabble and they would instantly leap to the anti-American position. Everyone says liberals love America, too. No, they don’t. Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence.”

“Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America.” which makes them enemies of America. “We won’t have any enemies because we’re going to kill them.” Whenever I see photos or video of her, I always look closely to see if there are men in the background with nets, but there never are.

In Canada, Liberal senator David Smith described the Liberal Party as never having “represented the far right or the far left. We’ve always had people on both sides of the spectrum. We’re small ’l’ social, progressive liberals and this is a liberal country. That’s our heritage. That’s our legacy. That’s what we represent.”

The remarkable thing about Liberalism in Canada, writes Newman,

“…was not its championing of innovative ideas or its sure grasp of what was important for Canada but the mood of self-confidence that pervaded its gatherings.” Liberals “believed with good reason that they had made Canada what it has become.”

And, indeed they had. Liberals, from Sir Wilfred Laurier to Paul Martin (1896 to 2006) were in power for 76 of 110 years. “The self-immolation of the Liberal party does not equal the end of Canada”, Newman writes, “just the cremation of some compassionate ideals that for a time were a worthy Canadian initiative. In fact, ”it was the [Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier (1896-1911)] who turned a struggling, barely self-governing colony into a nation by filling up the our West with European settlers before the Americans filled it up with themselves, effectively annexing it.”

“Predicting a comeback for the Liberals is tempting,” he writes. “They demand so little from their adherents. To be a Conservative these days, you must slavishly follow the daily edicts of Stephen Harper, and hum his songbook,” Harper being the “owner of the best medieval mind in the [House of] Commons.”

But I don’t believe a comeback is so far fetched--or at the least the continued liberal tradition of the country under, say, the New Democratic Party as they continue to water down their Scandinavian socialism. Conservatives, as political scientist Michael Wolfe has written:

“...cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are not likely to do it very well. As a way of governing, conservatism is another name for disaster.”

Conservatives do not have a good history of governance in Canada. “The Tories’ eagerness to find a winning formula was reflected in the fact that they changed their party name a dozen times post-Confederation and came under the leadership of nineteen individuals, many of whom gave anonymity a big boost. The Liberals never altered their label and had an even dozen chieftains—three of those in the last eight years.”

In 1958, Progressive Conservatives under John Diefenbaker won the largest parliamentary majority in Canadian history—208 out of 265 seats. In 1962 he had the third shortest parliament in Canadian history to be followed by Liberal leader Lester Pearson who was then succeeded by Liberal Pierre Trudeau.

In 1979 Progressive Conservative Joe Clark defeated Trudeau to govern over the shortest parliament in Canadian history—lasting 66 days from first sitting to dissolution, and only nine months from election to election.

In 1984, Progressive Conservative Mulroney formed the first Conservative majority government in 26 years—and only the second in 54 years. When he stepped down as leader in 1993, he was replaced by Kim Campbell who not only lost her own seat, but saw the party ranks decimated to only two seats—losing 151 seats, the greatest loss in Canadian history. The party even lost its status as a political party—which requires 12 seats to be officially recognized.

It was not a rejection of Campbell so much as it was a repudiation of Brian Mulroney who was, at the time, one of the most hated politicians ever. And yet, for all his arrogance and unpopular policies, it was really a collapse of his coalition of supporters.

On paper, with just over half the electorate voting conservative, he could govern almost as he pleased. But his support was really a “grand coalition” of socially conservative populists from the West; Quebec nationalists; and fiscal conservatives from Ontario and Atlantic Canada. It was a fractious bunch to have to keep happy.

It may not be any different with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Daniel Veniez, a former BC Liberal politician says that:

“Whether Harper stays or goes, the base of the Conservative party will remain a small-tent western and rural populist base, and its Christian fundamentalist core…. The Conservative party and its leader are viscerally angry. That is an ingrained part of who they are and what they represent. They remain a protest party, even in power, and have turned themselves into a protest government. They manage by negatives and are genetically incapable of inspiring hope or thinking big. They attack, assassinate character, tell lies, lower the bar on public discourse, and engage in tactical and divisive wedge politics and governance. They tap into people’s anxieties, fears and prejudices, then seek to exploit them to the hilt for electoral advantage. The tone, strategy, and culture of this government are established by Stephen Harper, a cheap-shot artist and cynic of the highest order.”

Veniez is no doubt biased in his assessment, but the Conservatives are very much like the American Tea Party movement. The fundamental reason that America is falling apart politically, is that the American people have never been able to free themselves from the eighteenth century mythology of their country’s existence. They believe they are an exceptional nation. After all, they play what they call a World Series but from its inception in 1903, until 1993, no teams from any other nation ever competed (until the Toronto Blue Jays played in 1993 and won the Pennant).

Harper's conservatives may not last, but the real issue is how much damage they can inflict on the country. As H. D. S. Greenway wrote in the Boston Globe in 2008: “When you think of Bush and his team, it's hard to believe so much harm could be done to so many by so few.”

Peter C. Newman has been Canada’s premier political commentator for the last half century. His 25 books have sold more than two million copies. His 2005 book, The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister was one of the most controversial books ever published in Canada. His last book, Izzy, tells the unauthorized story of Canadian media mogul Izzy Asper.

The recipient of seven honorary doctorates, Newman has won every journalism award there is and has been appointed first an Officer and then promoted to a Companion in the Order of Canada. His first political book, Renegade in Power (1963) covered, in excruciating detail, the rise and fall of Canada’s thirteenth Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (you’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of him).

When the Gods Changed is available at Amazon ” When the Gods Changed”

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Daniel Johnson as a teenager aspired to be a writer. Always a voracious reader, he reads more books in a month than many people read in a lifetime. He also reads 100+ online articles per week. He knew early that in order to be a writer, you have to be a reader.

He has always been concerned about fairness in the world and the plight of the underprivileged/underdog.

As a professional writer he sold his first paid article in 1974 and, while employed at other jobs, started selling a few pieces in assorted places.

Over the next 15 years, Daniel eked out a living as a writer doing, among other things, national writing and both radio and TV broadcasting for the CBC, Maclean’s (the national newsmagazine) and a wide variety of smaller publications. Interweaved throughout this period was soul-killing corporate and public relations writing.

It was through the 1960s and 1970s that he got his university experience. In his first year at the University of Calgary, he majored in psychology/mathematics; in his second year he switched to physics/mathematics. He then learned of an independent study program at the University of Lethbridge where he attended the next two years, studying philosophy and economics. In the end he attended university over nine years (four full time) but never qualified for a degree because he didn't have the right number of courses in any particular field.

In 1990 he published his first (and so far, only) book: Practical History: A guide to Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” (Polymath Press, Calgary)

Newly appointed as the Deputy Executive Editor in August 2011, he has been writing exclusively for Salem-News.com since March 2009 and, as of summer 2011, has published more than 160 stories.

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