Thursday May 27, 2004

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 27, 2004

The return of John Crosbie?

The once-imposing physique reflected the frail state of his 73-year-old birth certificate, but the Newfie blarney rolling off his biting tongue was as sharp as ever.

John Crosbie walked into a St. John’s hotel lobby on Wednesday to declare himself seriously interested in becoming a comeback Conservative MP over the “savage objections” of his wife Jane.

If, as he warned less than two years ago, the Conservatives must beware the “morticians in the Alliance party” and reject any unification overture, this startling development makes Crosbie a prized open-coffin conversion.

The senior cabinet minister during Joe Clark’s and Brian Mulroney’s reigns was among the most severely deluded of the truest, bluest, Progressive Conservatives, seeing the end of moderation and the rise of the far right in any guilty association with the Alliance. The future, Crosbie huffed into any open microphone, lay in the miracle of the PC franchise’s rebirth, with Alliance members crawling back over glass to again embrace the party of Confederation. (Calgary Herald)