The Fourth Part of Chapter 22: I Choose...

Patricia turned back to the television; it was 9:26, four minutes before the polls would close in British Columbia, and those results become public. The election team was discussing how the election had played out in Saskatchewan and Alberta; the Conservatives had captured most seats in both provinces, with two seats in Saskatchewan going to the New Democrats, one to the Liberals, and the balance to the Conservatives. Helena Perari was talking about the agricultural policies of the Conservatives: “Duff and his team took a comparatively free-market approach, saying that subsidies would be paid to the farmers would be reduced, but they still recognised that farming was a difficult occupation to make money in, but they should still receive fewer subsidies, such that they may become more competitive. Their tendency to keep the promises they make, at least at the provincial level, has likely played a role in their success thus far: the people like honesty, on the whole, and it pays to be consistent an honest, as Duff is surely realising as he reaps the fruit of his reward.”

“Their use of ‘competitive’ in this sense is a euphemistic buzzword meaning any number of things.”

“Daniel is right, and in this case, more competitive would mean more up to date, leaner, or any number of other semi-meaningless words. It helped them in the prairies despite the old adage of the two things that matter in politics: money, and something else that I can’t recall. They would be denying the farmers money in this promise, but given that all three Prairie Provinces are presently urban in nature, this did not cost them. By ‘urban in nature’, I mean of course that the vast majority of the populations of the prairies live in its five largest cities, with much of the remainder living in smaller cities, and only a small portion of prairie residents being farmers.”

“I think Jim told us that ‘competitive’ was an economic term used to describe the type of market upon which economists base their models.”

“Oh,”

James had said that this type of market did not exist in reality, but rather simply held up as some perfect condition under which the laws of supply and demand function flawlessly; to Ryan, it seemed a kind of economic utopia.

“We finally have results from British Columbia, and they are looking very mixed so far: of the province’s thirty-two ridings, the Tories are leading in fifteen, the Liberals in ten, the New Democrats in five, the Greens in one, and an independent is leading in one riding. In Yukon, the New Democrats are leading, and with that the national tally is: 109 seats for the Liberals, 120 seats for the Conservatives, forty seats for the Bloc Quebecois, thirty-five seats for the New Democrats, three seats for the Green Party, and one independent. We expect that over the course of the night, the numbers will change less, and the results that will come in later tonight and into the next couple of days will, unless the margin is razor thin, solidify the numbers we have already. Given this information, we can predict, barring a coalition between the Liberals and another party that the Conservatives will form the next government, and the prime minister will be Cameron Duff. Andrew?”

“Thank you, Derma. While there is a possibility of a coalition government, it does not seem very likely. The Bloc Québecois says it does not want to form part of a government, while Patrick Wakefield says the patronage scandal has left the Liberals’ reputation tarnished, and they needed to spend some time in the opposition. Unless Mr. Wakefield changes his mind, the next government will be conservative.

“Meach will probably live to regret his decisions to be loose with public money; it is a sin of which the public is especially unforgiving.”

“When you say razor-thin, you really do mean razor thin, right?” asked Geoff.

“Yes, by razor-thin, we mean margins of less than ten thousand votes across the country, which means, for example, Duff receiving two thousand more votes than Meach. That is not the case right now: Duff is presently fifteen thousand votes ahead of Meach in the popular vote, and that’s without all the votes counted; with all votes, the margin will grow substantially, and projecting the margin of victory to include the whole voting public implies a margin of about forty thousand votes. That’s not substantial, indeed it’s quite narrow given that we have been used to margins of victory in the millions of votes in terms of the popular vote, but Duff would still be the evident victor.”

Heron added, “Let’s keep in mind that the vote count isn’t everything; Trudeau won the popular vote in 1979, but Joe Clark’s Tories won more seats.”

“Yes, due to the vagaries of the first-past-the-post system,”

“Let’s now go to the Conservative campaign headquarters in Edmonton, where the conservatives are celebrating their victory.” The screen then changed to show the conservative campaign headquarters, and the silver-haired figure of Cameron Duff at a lectern in front of a large audience of cheering supporters.

“Tonight, dear friends, we have won a great victory. I would like to take this moment to thank all of you gathered here in a hall that supported the Conservative campaign during this election period. I would also like to dearly thank party supporters from all across the country. I would also like to thank Bruce Meach, Patrick Wakefield, Georges Valence, and Abethey Mazli for a vigorous, professional, and hard-fought campaign. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank the Canadian people for participating in this great exercise, no matter how cold it was; I know, for instance, that it was minus twenty-six in Montréal and Ottawa today, and it is minus forty-three outside right now, but neither temperature nor adversity, poor health or bad weather kept Canadians from the polling stations; indeed, the latest estimates show a voter turnout of eighty percent, the highest that Canada has seen in quite some time. This is a reflection of the quiet yet passionate way the Canadian people does politics, and I assure you, my party and I share your passions. As Canadians, we will move forward together in the great journey of Canada, and we will see new horizons with a strong Canada, a Canada at the forefront of the world, indeed, a great Canada. Thank you, my dear supporters, and good night.”

“What do you think of that?” asked Ryan.

“It’s a nice ending to a dramatic election campaign; one that they will be writing about in the history books, for sure. That was an inspiring speech that he gave.”

Meach will put up a fight, said Patricia to herself. One doesn’t relinquish power easily, especially when he can form a coalition with the New Democrats, the Greens and the independent. With the election campaign lost and won, there was not much else to see on television, and she had no ear for the prognostications of a number of talking heads.

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The Third Part of Chapter 22: I Choose...

“Now we will have a word from Geoff on the strategies of the campaign trail. Geoff, what part did policies play on strategy?”

“Policies played a major part in appealing to regional voters, as well as liberal and conservative voting blocs. The primary plank of the Tory platform was the elimination of payroll taxes, which is to say, the premiums that everybody sees deducted from their pay. This was particularly prominent considering anyone who has a job is reminded of these taxes when they receive their paycheques. It was thus politically flashy, and rather painted the Liberals into a corner, who were left to make noises about where they would find the money to cover what revenue stream was being lost from premiums. That this was a comment typically made by an opposition party, as Cam Duff pointed out, did not help the Liberals’ cause, and may foreshadow the Grits’ future role in the House of Commons. The Liberals’ policy of turning Canada’s Atlantic waters into a conservation zone was primarily aimed at environmentalists, a group which is growing in numbers very quickly, particularly after the collapse of the Atlantic fisheries last year. It is no secret that fisheries the world over are in poor shape, and the Liberals may have been trying to boost their international credibility in the eyes of fish lovers, environmentalists and conservationists the world over. Despite some traditionally obvious objections that reserving such a large area of our waters for the exclusive purpose of the conservation of sea life by banning all fishing would put a drag on the economy of the Atlantic region, there has been surprisingly little opposition there due to the collapse of their fisheries, which may explain the Liberal sweep of those four provinces, with the Conservatives leading in only two seats in the region right now. It may have also helped that the Liberals claimed that this new reserve would create tourism jobs, with people wanting to experience the wildlife up close. To use their words, they ‘want people to experience the seas as they are supposed to be: unimaginably teeming with wildlife, so thick with fish that they can impede ships in the way that Cabot was impeded’. As you can see, the Liberals are leading in 26 seats; the greens are leading in Cape Breton and the New Democrats have the balance.

“Speaking of the New Democrats, their campaign strategy was focussed on the manufacturing sector: they promised subsidies to industry, and they promised to protect domestic jobs. While this was popular in the more working-class parts of Ontario, it was not so among other regions of the country, such as Alberta; they are presently shut out of that province, most of those seats showing Conservative leads, and the other three showing Liberal leads, with five Tories now elected from that province. That strategy, while winning over substantial numbers of their traditional working class and socialist base, turned off many, indeed, almost all economists; during three weeks of discussions among several hundred economists, I was only able to find one voice supporting that policy, that voice belonging to the Canadian Auto Workers’ economist. For this reason, numerous economists, the Fraser Institute, the banks, the Conference Board of Canada, among others, all came out in opposition to aid to the manufacturing sector. All of these economists said it was protectionism and may violate the terms of numerous trade agreements that the Government had signed over the past several years.

“They also promised to invest in public transit infrastructure, as did the Liberals, but the promises made by New Democrats were much more substantial in this direction: they promised rail-based rapid transit investments in nearly every province, high-speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton, and along the Quebec-Windsor corridor, and the extension of Via Rail to Prince Edward Island, as well as new subway systems and substantial extensions to existing ones in the five most populous provinces. This promise was aimed primarily at the urban base of the New Democratic Party, and also aimed to appeal to populations along the rail corridors.”

“To give an update, the conservatives are leading or elected in 110 seats, the Liberals in 104, the Bloc in 35 seats, the New Democrats in 25 seats, and the Green party in one seat. We cannot predict who will form a government, as we are still waiting on results from B.C., which should be coming in fifteen minutes or so.”

“I don’t think there will be too much happening. I’ll go call Clarissa to see how she’s doing,” said Patricia as she left the living room. In the kitchen, she picked up the phone and dialled Clarissa.

“Hi Clarie, how are you?”

“Hi Pat, I’m fine. I’m watching the election right now.”

“I was, but nothing much is going on right now except for talking heads. Strategy is very interesting, but I would prefer to read it in the morning paper, you know?”

“I agree; reading Dan-Matt Night-Haig wax verbose with all of his sophisticated syllogisms is much more pleasurable than listening to him do the same. Isn’t it titillating?”

“Waiting to see who will form the next government, you mean?

“Of course. I really like the horse race aspect of it. You know, ‘Grits elected in twenty seats, leading in eighty-three more’, and all that.”

“So, the real reason I wanted to talk to you was simply because I wanted to hear from you. How are you? Are you still feeling down?”

“As long as you don’t remind me of my loss, I think I’ll make it through the evening just fine.”

“I trust you’ve been drinking water,”

“Yes,”

“Well, how’s it going?”

“Not so well at the moment; plenty of men look at my pregnant belly and think, no thank you. They don’t even ask about my income. I’ve been able to get past greetings with the more sensitive types, though.

“Oh, you know that thing with the leaked cabinet minutes? I’m a friend of Sandra Ward’s, who leaked those minutes, and she says the Prime Minister is quite the asshole. He constantly yells at staff, tries to control his cabinet with an iron fist, and demonises anyone who questions his integrity. I know that job has an unusual amount of strain, but this seems unacceptable; it’s like he has two sides to him: there’s the face he puts on for the public to see, and in private he’s this whole other person.”

“I guess that’s what you would call his public mask stripped away; I think the version of him revealed by the cabinet minutes is the real version of him.”

“Sandy also said he was losing his grip on reality. You know all those policies and that carefully crafted election platform he has? He doesn’t have a clue. He is simply an excellent actor who goes through all the lines and the proper gestures.”

“Clarie! Don’t you disapprove of gossip?”

“Well, yes, but you know, we’re all human. This may be damaging, as it has absolutely nothing to do with his policies, which I by and large agree with; it’s like an addiction, you know, and I confess I’m not entirely innocent. Nobody is. On the other hand, he works for us: it’s a simple employer-employee relationship,”

“Do you have any predictions for the outcome?”

“I predict a tumultuous Forty-First Parliament, but I’m sure you could have seen that already. As for who becomes prime minister, I think the numbers are trending to the conservatives, but I really don’t know; I voted for the Liberals, though only after much hemming, hawing and waffling. Is there anything interesting going on with you guys?”

“You know, it’s the same old, same old. Katherine is going into final exams with the high school science classes that she is teaching, which is always a bit of a stressful time for her, perhaps you can imagine.”

“Well, goodnight. I’ll be watching the political drama, and I’m sure you will be too. The television is showing Liberal headquarters right now. It sounds so quiet; I bet they’re all waiting on tenterhooks for the results to come in, just as we are.”

“Goodnight, Clarie. Take care.”

“Goodnight, Pat,”

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The Second Part of Chapter 22: I Choose...

After work that evening, Ryan and Patricia were seated on the sofa in their living room in front of the television. It was 8:59 PM, and the election results were just about to come on.

“Who do you think will win?”

“Oh, I think it’s anyone’s guess; the race really tightened up in the last week or so. I don’t think the mutiny of Meach’s ministers was particularly helpful to his campaign.”

The television cameras focussed on the host of the Election Night Coverage, Derma Head.

“Good evening, and welcome to CBC’s election night coverage. I am Derma Head, your host for tonight. Also on CBC’s Election Team are Helena Perari, Andrew Chadwick Heron, Daniel-Matthew Night-Haig, Evan Robert Durmer, Ford Dasker, and Geoff Toro. It has been a dramatic election campaign filled with all the usual promises, grandstanding and political soap operas. Today, you made your decision. With that, I will turn to Daniel-Matthew Night-Haig. Danny?”

“Good evening, Derma. This election has been punctuated with all the usual grandstanding, as you said, showboating, and a fair share of drama queens, but overlaying it was an additional palace drama, so to speak. It was about a week ago when Prime Minister Meach lost control of a large part of his cabinet over lingering feelings about the succession in the leadership of the Liberal Party. Andrea Colm, as you know, was forced out by what had turned out to be an over-ambitious Meach. This part of the drama had occurred five years ago, and it is all the more remarkable––and draws attention to what has been seen as the significant reticence of this government when it comes to releasing information––that the minutes of cabinet meetings were only made public ten days ago, which is admittedly a most inopportune time. It was said that the civil servant who posted the minutes on her blog, Sandra Irene Ward, was rather discontented with her job and the Prime Minister routinely victimised and bullied her. One might say that he planted the seeds of this mutiny four years ago and into the present by his attitude toward those around him, and he reaped what he has sown last week.

“The abandonment of Meach by his cabinet points to a dearth of management skills, and this had some play in the election. Meach had been gaining in the polls, which by last Sunday had him with a six-point lead over Duff, but now the race is neck-and-neck. The last poll, going into the election, had the Liberals and Conservatives tied with a 32% approval rating to each of them. The New Democrats went into the election with a 20% approval rating, the Bloc Québecois with a 8% approval rating, and the greens with a 6% approval rating, leaving only 2% undecided, which is the smallest such undecided subsection in the history of the poll conducted by Treiserd-Wiss. In short, who becomes prime minister is anybody’s guess: it could be either Meach or Duff. The approval rating of 20% eliminates Wakefield from contention for the top job, which I imagine must be disappointing for him; he and all other New Democrats were hoping for a breakthrough this year.”

“We have an update: the first polling station in Newfoundland has reported their results. These results come from Bay Bulls, a former fishing community south of St. John’s; polling stations in Newfoundland closed at 10:30 local time in order to be synchronised with the other provinces, and results from British Columbia and Yukon will be available in half an hour. The results from this particular polling station, with thirty-two voters, were fourteen for the Liberals, twelve for the Conservatives, four for the New Democrats, and two for the Greens. We will be receiving updates continuously throughout the night; the results from the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba will be available in a few minutes, and the results will change dramatically. Now, we have preliminary results for the entire province of Newfoundland and Labrador, with the Liberals leading in four seats, the conservative leading in two seats, and the New Democrats leading in one seat. The results will also be displayed at the marquee along the bottom of your screen. Evan?”

“Thank You, Derma. The Prime Minister’s Atlantic strategy was focussed on conservation and the long-term preservation of the fisheries there. As you know, the cod fishery of Newfoundland was shut down in 1992, and the closure of most Saint Lawrence fisheries followed suit last year. Given this, Meach promised a comprehensive conservation and breeding effort to, as he put it ‘make fishing cod, haddock, and salmon economically viable for the foreseeable future’ by strictly banning all fishing within our exclusive economic zone, which was to be enforced by the navy presently stationed in Halifax.”

“What did you think of that promise? I was wondering how the government was planning to patrol three million square kilometres of water with only three ships and a submarine,” said Ryan.

“Maybe he was planning to use the coast guard patrol ships,” said Patricia.

“There was some opposition to that, which was very interesting; they were saying that it unnecessarily curtailed the fishermen’s’ right to make a living by fishing as much as they wanted. The problem with that is, there is no living to make, because the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Grand Banks are empty; that’s why the unemployment rate in the Maritimes is 27%; at least that’s what Clarissa said,”

“I think turning the Atlantic into a marine park would be a very good idea.”

“Hey look, there are more results; it looks like, all the way west to Alberta! The Liberals are now leading in 105 seats, and the Conservatives are also leading in 105 seats!” exclaimed Patricia.

“…And the Bloc Québecois has 30 seats, the New Democrats have 31 seats, and the Greens have two.”

Ford Dasker was speaking: “With preliminary poll results coming in from all provinces and territories save Yukon and British Columbia, the Liberals and Conservatives are still tied, at 105 seats to each of them. Given these results, the CBC cannot predict anything as of yet. We do not know who will form the government, or who will become prime minister. The only thing we can say with confidence is that the 41st Canadian Parliament will be a minority parliament, which means that whoever wishes to govern will need to form alliances with other parties. It is also noteworthy that the Green Party is leading in two seats, but we shall wait for that to change. That the results should still be so close with this many polling stations reporting is an indicator of how changeable the electorate has been. While individuals’ minds may not have changed significantly, the numbers for the Liberals and Tories were sufficiently close for the lead to vacillate a number of times throughout the campaign. As you remember, back at the end of November when this election was called the Liberals were leading by seven points, which is not that impressive, but would still guarantee their grip on power were the election held then. The lead has since narrowed, placing the Tories, Grits and New Democrats within five points of each other, between 26% and 31%, which changed by Christmas with the Tories in the lead. The Liberals leading at New Year’s followed that, with another swing towards the Tories ahead of Election Day; a tumultuous election season it was, indeed.”

“Horse races aside, Ford, what do you see in the next parliament?”

“I see more drama and more exciting question periods.”

“As you can see, the numbers are changing as we speak, and the Tories are now in the lead, with 112 seats. The liberals have now fallen to 100 seats. Now, at this point, we only have sufficient data to call 24 seats, so we would wish to emphasise that these are very preliminary numbers. As the night wears on, it should be noted that the numbers will become more ‘sticky’, so to speak, meaning that they are less likely to change dramatically.”

“We are still waiting for results from British Columbia, which are due in at 9:30 PM eastern time. As you can imagine, both Grit and Tory headquarters are on tenterhooks waiting for the results; this is shaping up to be a very long night, and with the battle lost and won, the dust will settle early tomorrow, possibly at 3:00 AM. Needless to say, I do not envy Bruce Thomas Meach or Cameron Duff right now.”

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The First Part of Chapter 22: I Choose...

Election Day, which was on Monday, January 16, arrived at last. It was a clear and cold day in most of the country, and would be remembered as the coldest day that year. Eunice, who was wearing thickly insulated boots, long johns, jeans, a thick undershirt, a wool sweater, two pairs of mittens, a light jacket and a heavy overcoat, walked to the polling station. She had made up her mind: she wanted Cameron Duff as Prime Minister, and thus would be voting that way. It was his general likeability, but more specifically it was his idea of eliminating payroll taxes; that was what really turned her on. Imagine, no more EI contributions or Canada Pension Plan premiums! This would be a boost to her convenience store, and would allow her to save on payroll; if those promises were fulfilled, she might consider giving Jared a raise. There were other plusses to be said of Duff, of course: among them was his policy of changing the inflation-targeting policy of the Bank of Canada to aim for price stability rather than an inflation rate of 2 per cent.

Mario was with Eunice at the polling station, and he watched his wife vote. When she was done, he walked into the polling booth; he was voting for Patrick Wakefield, as he liked the idea of expanded public transportation systems; it would be nice to get a subway in this city, he thought. The New Democrats’ environmental policy was also very similar to that of the Liberals; the New Democrats were essentially a cleaner version of the Liberals, and while he essentially agreed with Meach on most major points, there was still the patronage scandal to consider. The scandal was a very poor business, in his opinion, and he knew from conversations with his friends, his wife’s friends, and polls that this opinion was widely shared.

Hyram stood at the polling booth in a church basement on Finch Avenue, and drew an x in the box next to the conservative candidate, Fiona O’Brien, who he happened to know personally. He preferred their economic policies at this time; Duff’s campaign promise to get rid of most of the payroll tax was a good idea in his mind. He knew the payroll tax was highly visible; after all, it appears on almost all pay-stubs, and he knew this was a deciding factor for him and plenty of other people. That Duff was highly articulate certainly helped, and Meach had looked increasingly distracted from early in the campaign onwards. He dismissed the New Democrat, Patrick Wakefield, out of hand due to his trade policy, which called for protection of domestic workers against foreign competition that he said was needed in a “changing world”, whatever that meant. He, being a wealthy person, was more concerned about the government’s monetary and financial policies. It was for this reason that the elimination of payroll taxes appealed to him, and it was for this reason that targeting price stability rather than an inflation rate of 2% also appealed to him.

Patricia cast her vote in a desire to see her Member of Parliament, a liberal, re-elected, because she liked what Bruce Meach had been doing as Prime Minister; he had handled the recession well, he was conventionally Canadian abroad, which meant he was low-key, and he had managed to keep the deficit under control, which from what Clarissa had said, was a most remarkable achievement. He had not pleased all of his critics, of course: some people accused him of not doing enough; others accused him of doing too much; still others accused him of doing both of the preceding at the same time, which is a most remarkable accomplishment. Given these people were mostly opposition politicians from the New Democrats, the Bloc Québecois and the Conservatives, it was not a very credible accusation, and had a tone of political shrillness.

Belinda stood at the polling booth, and put an x next to the liberal candidate, Supreet Singha. She was something of a conservationist herself, and in addition to gossip, she enjoyed hiking and fishing, so the idea of setting aside the Atlantic waters for a wildlife sanctuary gave her a warm and fuzzy feeling inside when she thought about it. The New Democrats also had good policies, but Belinda saw little practical difference between them and the Liberals as far as her interests went; both of them promised funding for the expansion of rapid transit systems across the country, and although the New Democrats had promised that for more cities, both they and the Liberals had promised that this city would get a subway system like Montréal or Toronto, which would be nice on a freezing cold day like today. Why was the election being held on what was sure to be the coldest day of the year? It was minus twenty outside; I might die were it not for my coat, heavy sweaters, thick mittens, toque and long johns, she thought.

Mary stood at the polling booth at a school near her home in Kitchener and put an x next to the New Democratic candidate, Nigel Trawdeed. She, like many others across the country and in her riding, did not like the way that their previously elected Member of Parliament, Christopher Relk, had behaved. That he had retired after having served out only a year of his term, which should have lasted two years given the minority Parliament, was one thing. That he had done so after enthusiastically promising to serve as the people of Kitchener-Waterloo, as he had eloquently put it in a memorable speech during the last campaign, was quite another. It was still something else when he referred to his constituents as “the rubes back home”, as heard in a bugged room by an Ottawa Citizen reporter. Were it a mere isolated incident, she might have ignored it and voted for the Liberals again (who were represented here by Davis Breilach in the election campaign), to send a foot soldier for the larger Liberal cause, which admittedly seemed to change, but whatever; now, however, she was going to vote for someone else. The Liberals had grown too corrupt, too complacent, and had taken their support for granted too often, and she had heard of several other stories about the Liberals making disparaging comments about their constituents when they thought nobody was listening. It wasn’t just that; the New Democrats had promised money to build a light rail network in Waterloo Region, where there was presently a line under construction; they had promised a fundamental change in direction to the way we get around, and in Kitchener-Waterloo, this was going to happen with light rail service from Cambridge to Elmira, as was promised by Patrick Wakefield. The Liberals, in their conventional idea borrowing, had promised something similar, but the New Democrats had promised double the money in a partnership with the provincial government. That would mean bigger stations, better stations, more busses, and more and larger trains, she thought, and it would also mean less driving around, which she hated; getting behind the wheel always agitated her. The possibility of being responsible for the death of some helpless animal, or, heaven forbid, a person at nearly a moment’s notice unnerved her. She had never developed the good reflexes needed to react to sudden changes either, so she had had several close misses in the past, each of which made her tremble to think about them.

The Conservatives had promised to cut red tape, and this kind of thing appealed to people like David; they had promised, for instance, to streamline the bureaucracy by making job responsibilities clearer, while not making any major departmental changes, which he thought were done for the sake of it, or else to please the powers that be. “Streamlining bureaucracy” evidently meant that some of the civil service would be laid off or sent to work in other departments that were understaffed, which was a good thing, he thought. Without knowing the specifics, there was always bound to be some department overstaffed, while another was understaffed. There was also the issue of the scandal; the Liberals had become corrupt, Meach had become too distracted from running the country and the very real diplomatic impasse with the Germans––he had called the European Union “as dead as the dodo” in an emotional outburst to the German Foreign Minister––in August, which had done nothing to enhance the Canadian image abroad. It did harm to international credibility to have an increasingly unstable person running the country. It was true that his government had balanced the budget after the recessionary splurge, but that was more the work of the Minister of Finance. For these reasons, behind the voting screen, David voted for the Conservatives.

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