Why the media buzz over Tom Long?
Tom Long has never held elected office. Until last month few Canadians even knew his name. Yet his entry into the race to lead the Canadian Alliance, Canada’s Official Opposition, has been heralded by the corporate media as a major realignment in Canadian politics. “The logic in Tom Long’s candidacy,” declared a lead editorial in the Globe and Mail, “… is so strong that it threatens one national institution [the Conservative Party] and two national figures: [the Canadian Alliance’s chief architect] Preston Manning and [Conservative Party leader] Joe Clark…. [The] very structure of Canadian national politics is at stake.” Conrad Black’s stable of newspapers has likewise made sweeping claims for Long’s candidacy. “In 1993,” wrote the National Post, the Conservatives “lost two of their three political legs to new parties when the West fell to Reform [the Alliance’s predecessor] and Quebec” forsook the Tories for the Bloc Québécois. Now Long “is leading the final exodus of Ontario cons
