Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Maybe, but I think it goes back to the early 90’s or around that time. I feel like prior to that politicians themselves had a different relationship. They were political opponents, but probably friends away from the limelight. Things slowly got more divisive though. While you could probably see Decore and Klein go for a beer and chat, could you ever see Notley and Smith so that today? Federally, I feel like Broadbent/Turner/Mulroney could do that. There’s no way you’d get Pierre and Justin hanging out today though.
And it’s not just personality issues. It’s a fundamental change in how politics operates now. Everyone is so entrenched in their position that there’s no wiggle room and no compromise.
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There's a pretty good reason for that, and the fact that you're equating people like Smith or Poilievre with someone like Mulroney should give you a pretty good clue why.
It's not hard at all to imagine people like O'Toole, Charest, or MacKay having civil and friendly relations with other party leaders, and that's because they're largely centrists. Look at Rona Ambrose. She was the interim leader for the Conservatives after Harper, and then 3 months after she left that position, she was working with the Trudeau government as part of the NAFTA renegotiations. The reasonable members of the different parties have no trouble working together.
The fact that you can't envision Smith having good relations with Notley isn't because of "politics today"; it's because Smith is bat**** crazy and is basically a conspiracy theory ****poster who was handed the job of Premier.