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What if you had a party and nobody came?

The Progressive Conservative party has gone from Canada’s oldest and most prominent political party to a small group of peripheral candidates who seem to only get votes in the Maritimes. But that’s not the only problem they’ve been facing these days. With Joe Clark retiring, the Tories are in the midst of a leadership contest . . . only nobody wants the job.

Bernard Lord, the fluently bilingual young premier of New Brunswick, MP John Herron and John Tory, a veteran party strategist from Toronto, all opted out of seeking the leadership. Each had attracted organizational and financial backing within the party.

Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie has said thanks but no thanks to Tory recruiters. Vancouver businessman Rick Peterson, highly touted in the party as a young, bilingual B.C. voice, says he won’t make a leadership bid.

So far the only declared candidate is Heward (who?) Grafftey, a former cabinet minister.

It’s really too bad, because the Tory party was an important player on the Canadian political scene. The stigma of the Mulroney years aside, the party did have some good contributions to make, without slipping into the worst aspects of the right like the Alliance.

In the meantime, I think there’s a very big “help wanted” sign in the door of the party offices.

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