How do the Liberals get away with this?

One of the many great advantages of being a member of the Liberal party is that you can get away with stuff other parties can’t.

For example, you can decry the Tories as scheming manipulators — remember the uproar over the nefarious “in and out scandal?” ($10 if you recall what it was about) — then, once in office, you can merrily parachute in preferred candidates over local protests, strong-arm local favourites into taking a hike, sell access to preferred ministers and squeeze every nickel possible from supplicants foolish enough to approach the government in hope of assistance. All while posing as reformers dedicating to eradicating the evil habits practised by predecessors.

Or you can promise a new era of co-operation with the provinces, pledge regular meetings at which common ground will be found while maintaining mutual respect in aid of the common good, and then present the premiers and their health ministers with a take-it-or-leave-it offer that is all but identical to the one they were offered by the Conservatives, and shrug off their protests.

When he was prime minister, Stephen Harper never pretended he expected to get along with provincial and territorial leaders like they were summer councillors at Camp Canada. When the generous health transfers they’d extracted from Paul Martin were due to expire, Harper offered an extension of the six per cent annual increases, gradually narrowing to a formula based on economic growth, but not falling below three per cent. Although the result would be an extra $8 billion in the five years ending in 2018-19, the provinces fell on Finance Minister Jim Flaherty like avenging angels, denouncing the increase as a vicious reduction that would leave health professionals scrounging for pennies amidst scenes of ill Canadians suffering in anguish.

Cut to Liberal Health Minister Jane Philpott, who on Friday confessed her delight at the success of her effort to fracture the unity of the provinces, then pick off the stragglers one at a time. “Today is a fantastic day for us,” she said after Quebec, Ontario and Alberta finally admitted defeat and accepted separate offers from Ottawa, just as all other provinces except Manitoba have done. “The really good news about this is that the Canada Health Transfer is going to increase every year. It’s going to outpace inflation. It’s outpacing GDP growth,” she said.

The Conservative offer contained all the same advantages, but this time the premiers are feigning enthusiasm at having been soundly outsmarted. Ontario’s Eric Hoskins maintained the package represented “a key component of our government’s plan to put patients first.” Quebec, which had raged against Philpott in terms that would have embarrassed René Lévesque, says the deal is a welcome reflection of Quebec’s special place in Confederation.

All of a sudden the Tory offer — which Ontario had claimed would slice $36 billion from support for health care — is just the thing the premiers dreamed of, simply by being repackaged as a Liberal proposal. The Toronto Star, which almost died of apoplexy over Flaherty’s formula, reported proudly Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, in co-opting the plan, “has written a 10-year prescription for health funding that will inject an additional $4.2 billion into Ontario’s medicare system.”

What is it about Liberals that lets them get away with this? And that draws acolytes into ignoring the false front they love to project? One of the chief charges against Flaherty was that he hadn’t negotiated his deal with the provinces, but simply unveiled it as a fait accompli. The Liberals, on the other hand, gladly sent ministers to blather earnestly into the cameras, then, behind closed doors, unveiled their proposal and refused to budge. It bugged the premiers no end that Harper wouldn’t grace them with his presence at their get-togethers, but Trudeau has similarly insisted his cabinet ministers are able to handle the portfolios he awarded them, and rejected efforts to go over their heads.

Of course, Trudeau has a more practised graciousness than Harper, who would never have been caught grasping Laureen’s hand as they strolled through a perfect winter scene on International Women’s Day, gazing mesmerized into one another’s eyes as Laureen pleaded with the world’s women to “celebrate the boys and men in our lives who encourage us to be who we truly are, who treat girls & women with respect.” Sophie Gregoire took a bit of flak for her remarks, but anyone want to bet she didn’t nail down untold female votes for hubby in the process?

Today’s Conservatives are too cynical: they’d never believe Canadians were sappy enough to fall for anything so blatantly manipulative. Liberals know that voters are more than happy to be pandered too, and will swallow the same guff time and again. The few times Harper tried to show a human side, playing his piano and croaking out Beatles hits, he was ridiculed for it, because people didn’t believe he really acted like that at home. But they seem to accept that Trudeau is honestly as oleaginous as he puts on.

People like to be stroked. Provincial leaders enjoy having Ottawa put on a show of respect, even while working feverishly to outflank them. It’s probably far too late in the game for Tories to start presenting themselves as boy scouts ever on the lookout for kittens to rescue. They’d probably never be able to maintain the sincere visage needed to put across the ruse in any case. The Liberals got there long before them, and are so skilled in the performance that most of them probably believe they really mean it. That’s the sort of deception that’s really hard to beat.