OTTAWA, August 26, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The Progressive Conservative Party voted over the weekend to reject a merger with the Canadian Alliance and to field candidates in all ridings thus nixing any version of cooperation offered by the Alliance. The most succinct commentary on the situation came from Patrick Brown, the outgoing president of the Tories’ youth wing. “The Liberals in Ottawa will be pouring champagne because they have just won another election,” he said. Brown continued: “We have given the Liberals victory by default and unfortunately we allowed the dwindling dinosaurs in our party to win the day. These are people who are stuck to a party name, stuck to an obscure reality. They are being delusional. The reality is we cannot win divided.” Also in a column today, Edmonton Journal columnist Lorne Gunter demonstrates plainly the foolishness of the move for the Conservatives. Gunter notes that “Since Harper took over in March, the Alliance has risen from 14 per cent to 18 per cent, hardly a juggernaut. But the Tories have dropped from 16 per cent to 15. And since the depths of the Day controversy last year, the Alliance has resurged 11 points, while the Tories have dropped four”.
See the National Post coverage and Gunter’s piece: https://www.nationalpost.com/search/site/story.asp?id=8FCBF18E-A76C-43F2-BA13-76582275A018 https://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=21CD1BC9-3E09-4EB5-881C-93CABB59DE29