Later today when the Governor General reads the Speech from the Throne, Stephane Dion and the Liberals should take their cues from a wily Roman general who was in a desperate war with the Carthaginians in 217 B.C. Stephane Dion needs to play Fabius Maximus to Stephen Harper’s Hannibal (the Carthaginian general who led his troops into Italy.)
Hannibal wanted to fight a war of annihilation against the Romans. He planned to lure them out onto the field of battle where he could finish off their armies and occupy Rome itself. And when he got the chance, he decimated Roman armies at Lake Trasimene and Cannae.
But the wily Fabius Maximus decided to fight a war of attrition against the invaders. He shadowed Hannibal’s army, but refused to engage him in a pitched battle. He deployed what have been called “Fabian Tactics” ever since.
Naturally the impatient critics of Fabius (Layton and Duceppe) heaped scorn upon him and dubbed him “Hannibal’s lackey.” The poet Ennius was closer to the truth when he immortalized Fabius as “the man who singly saved the state by patience.”
Hannibal wandered around Italy, thumping his chest, but eventually he ran out of supplies and had to take his armies home, where he was defeated by the Romans.
It’s not easy to be a Fabian. In the Canadian Parliament, you’ll be howled down by what passes for manliness in that chamber of horrors. But Stephane Dion needs to remember two things. A war of attrition may not seem heroic but it works exceptionally well against an opponent who needs to fight right now, but whose staying power is not as great as yours. The Liberals, when fully mobilized and fighting on ground of their own choosing can defeat the Conservatives whose appeal is limited to a distinct minority of Canadians. Second, the public (as opposed to the Ottawa media) is much more interested in what the government does than in the trials and tribulations of the opposition. The story will quickly shift from Liberal humiliation for not voting out the government to the real problems the government is getting itself into---in Afghanistan, in the failure to fight greenhouse gas emissions, and in the emerging crisis in Canada’s manufacturing sector.
In the next few days, during all the sound and fury, Stephane Dion should adhere to the wise approach of a Roman general whose name became a watchword for the tactics of patience.
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5 comments:
Personally, I think Dion's main strategy should be avoiding at all costs letting the public know that he knows who Fabius Maximus is!!! :-) Isn't he enough "the professor" already!??!
It's sad but it's true.
On a more serious note, it's an interesting analysis, but I think the analogy falls down on an important point. Harper is Prime Minister. The Tories are in power. In this analogy, I think that makes them Rome. I think that in Canada today a war of attrition (in the short term) may well favour the incumbents. Harper's inside the city, and has plenty of supplies thank you very much. Dion is the head of the tough army short of supplies and outside the walls of power. Now, Hannibal's experience show that constant attacks may not be the way to go, but "Fabian tactics" work best if you're Rome.
And whatever Harper is, Dion and the Liberals ain't Rome!
Dion earlier claimed that he would not vote for the throne speech if it did not bring back the Clean Air Act (not the act purged of anything clean), and did not commit to quit Canada's combat role in Afghanistan in Feb 2009. Those two conditions at least Harper violated. Not only is his environmental policy mostly hot air he refused to commit on ending the combat mission in Afghanistan and furthermore said that the mission should be extended until well beyond that to train the Afghan army and police.
There are other aspects of the speech that Liberals surely cannot support. The analogy with Fabius Maximus is pure fairy tales.
If the Liberals support the speech they will swallow all their pride and eat the garbage Harper has thrown at them. This is of course the recommendation of Ignatieff. The next step will be to swallow the Omnibus Crime Bill.. and on and on..as the polls plummet further and Dion is savaged by the frustrated kingmakers who want him brought down.
Cool write-up, but you couldn't be more wrong about what the liberals should do.
If I was Dion, I would have probably busted in my pants after the thrown speech. The current government claimed that they have no intention of honoring kyoto, and that they want to extend Canada's mission in Afghan.
It should be a BLESSING for any liberal leader to have an opposing party willing to make such statements. So long as Dion has imaginative political strategists around him and knows how to play politics with ppl and media, it should be a walk in the ballpark.
Patience is not always a virtue...
aly k
Dion is a weak leader, a fact made even more evident after the liberal loss in Outremont. The Conservatives know this and are begging for an election to happen as soon as possible,to secure their time in office.
Back when the liberal leadership convention was happening, I always wondered why the Manley's and Tobin's of the liberal party were not running for leadership. It's pretty obvious, they're waiting for the conservatives to have their run for the next few years, and for Dion to be publicly humiliated to the point where he can't lead the party anymore. Then, when the conservatives inevitably embarrass themselves (as they have so many times before), the pendulum will swing back to the liberals with an english speaking version of chretien at the helm.
Excellent article and strategy.
SAVED THE STATE BY PATIENCE and I think this is the best for now..
I didn't know the meaning before
thanks for the explanation..
marta
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