Red Book (Liberal Party of Canada)

Red Book (Liberal Party of Canada)

The Red Book, officially titled Creating Opportunity: The Liberal Plan for Canada was the platform of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 1993 federal election. It earned its name from its bright red cover, red being the official colour of the Liberals. It was a 112 page booklet; many thousands of copies of it were printed, and it was widely distributed. There was even talk of trying to mail a copy to each Canadian household, but it was decided this would be too expensive.

Contents

Purpose

It was exceptional in how specific it was; while platforms before and since have contained a few substantive promises and many vague statements of principle, the Red Book laid out a long list of changes that the Liberals would make if brought to power.

It was also rare in Canada to have an entire platform released at once. Generally, a party would release a policy idea, wait for it to gather as much media attention as possible, and then release another. Those ideas had also been released during speeches by the party leader, not printed in unbending prose.

Perhaps most central was that the Liberal Red Book gave costs for each of their promises and summed them. Never before had a party attempted to clearly prove that its promises were fiscally responsible and practical.

It was one of the first "contract with the public" type platforms, an idea used by the United States Republican Party in its 1994 Contract with America and Mike Harris's 1995 Common Sense Revolution in Ontario.

1993 Election

The Liberals, out of power since 1984, were widely expected to win the 1993 election based on the great pan-Canadian dislike for the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. The Liberals under Jean Chrétien were worried by a jump in Tory support with the selection of new leader Kim Campbell.

A larger concern was the general Canadian antipathy towards politicians after the tumultuous and scandal plagued Mulroney years. The 1992 referendum on the Charlottetown Accord was widely interpreted of a rejection of Canada's political elite by the general population.

To attempt to break through the cynicism and distrust the Liberals felt that being more specific and making many promises would help ensure a victory, thus the Red Book was created.

The Red Book was drafted mainly by Paul Martin, who finished as runner-up in the 1990 Liberal leadership convention to Chrétien, and Chaviva Hosek a top policy official with the Liberals. By giving Martin a prominent role in the campaign, this was seen as Chrétien's attempt to unify the Liberal Party.

Impact

The Liberals rolled out the Red Book on September 19, not long after the September 8 election call. Several days later, the Progressive Conservatives released the hastily assembled A Taxpayer's Agenda, but the Liberals had captured the reputation of being the party with ideas since they had essentially released their entire platform. Thanks to the Red Book as well as a gradual decline in support for the governing Conservatives (unpopularity, vote splitting with Reform and Bloc), the Liberals won a strong majority government with 177 seats—the third-best result in the party's history, and their best performance since their record 190 seats in the 1949 election. The Conservatives were nearly eliminated from the political scene, falling to two seats in the worst defeat ever suffered for a governing party at the federal level.

Broken promises

The specificity of the Red Book came back to haunt the Liberals, however, and much of the next few years were spent defending broken promises. The most notable of these was the Goods and Services Tax, which the Liberals had promised to replace but did not. Critics also said that the Liberals had broken their promises to increase the power of individual Members of Parliament and introducing a national childcare program.

In Chrétien's view, the majority of the promises were kept. He famously argued that 78% were honoured, a mark he could live with. Others contest whether some of these promises were kept or not. Some of the most notable promises from the Red Book that were kept were the pledge to cancel the purchase of new naval helicopters, canceling the sale of Toronto Pearson International Airport, reforming unemployment insurance, more gun control, and reducing the size of the armed forces with the end of the Cold War. Perhaps the most important pledge kept was that of returning Canada to fiscal solvency.

New Liberal Red Books were published for the 1997 and 2000 elections. These contained far fewer specifics and more generalities.

See also

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Liberal Party of Canada — Infobox Canada Political Party party name = Liberal Party of Canada Parti libéral du Canada party wikicolourid = Liberal status = active class = fed foundation = July 1, 1867 dissolution = party leader = Stéphane Dion| president =Doug Ferguson… …   Wikipedia

  • Liberal Party of Canada leadership convention, 2006 — Canadian politics/leadership race party = Liberal year = 2006 date = December 2 December 3 2006 location = Montreal, Quebec winner = Stéphane Dion replaces = Paul Martin numcands = 8 ballots= 4 entryfee = C$50,000 requirement = signatures of at… …   Wikipedia

  • Red Book — may refer to:In biology and medicine: * Red Book of Endangered Species * Red Data Book of the Russian Federation, a list of endangered and protected species, prohibited for hunting, in Russia and most CIS states * Statement of Fees and Allowances …   Wikipedia

  • Green Party of Canada candidates, 2006 Canadian federal election — The Green Party of Canada ran a full slate of 308 candidates in the 2006 Canadian federal election. Some of these candidates have separate biography pages; relevant information about other candidates may be found here. The candidates are listed… …   Wikipedia

  • Progressive Party of Canada — The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party …   Wikipedia

  • Conservative Party of Canada candidates, 2006 Canadian federal election — The Conservative Party of Canada ran a full slate of 308 candidates in the 2006 Canadian federal election. Some of these candidates have separate biography pages; relevant information about other candidates may be found here. The candidates are… …   Wikipedia

  • Manitoba Liberal Party candidates, 1999 Manitoba provincial election — One member of the Manitoba Liberal Party was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in the 1999 provincial election. Some of the party s candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here. Contents 1… …   Wikipedia

  • Reform Party of Canada — Infobox Canada Political Party party name = Reform Party of Canada Parti réformiste du Canada party wikicolourid = Reform status = defunct class = fed party leader = Preston Manning Only leader president = n/a foundation = October 31 1987… …   Wikipedia

  • Danish Social Liberal Party — Radikale Venstre Leader Margrethe Vestager Chairman Klaus F …   Wikipedia

  • cañada — /keuhn yah deuh, yad euh/, n. Chiefly Western U.S. 1. a dry riverbed. 2. a small, deep canyon. [1840 50; < Sp, equiv. to cañ(a) CANE + ada n. suffix] * * * Canada Introduction Canada Background: A land of vast distances and rich natural resources …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”