Even now, the Tories are debating and voting on merger. I watched a little of the debate, and the biggest cheer came for John Crosbie, who made the most cogent and convincing argument in favour of merger (though the chair half-heartedly attempted to cut him off mid-way):
Post-merger, the Conservative party can have a number of traits that boil down to "moderate," and have a chance at winning an election. Or they can be regionalistic and socially conservative, and have no chance of winning. From Crosbie's perspective, the PCs might do themselves some harm, but there is no risk to the country whatsoever.
Damn - that John Crosbie is pretty sharp. He's got a great future in politics.
Update: No surprise - the Tory merger vote passed. No surprise, I say, because of how many delegates are rumoured to have voted in both this and yesterday's Alliance vote. I think there would be a lot less criticism of this from the Orchard part of the party if they'd frozen the membership roll the day the merger negotiations closed, yet this likely still would have passed. Either way, now it's done, and there's little Orchard or anyone else can do about it at this point.
Depending on the next few months, expect to read "The
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