The blogger’s quandary: for whom should I vote?
October 5, 2011
This should be easy. Each of the candidates has dutifully presented himself at my door, sat down on my sofa, and given me an uninterrupted hour of his time while I asked whatever questions came into my head.
But it’s not.
Progressive Conservative MPP Steve Clark greeted me like an old friend, and I suppose he is. I worked with Steve during the planning for the International Plowing Match on our property in 2007. But Steve quit halfway through the three-year-process, leaving everyone in the lurch. Bob Runciman called from Toronto, and Steve was off to greener pastures. No doubt Steve Clark is an enthusiastic advocate at Queen’s Park, and I wish him well, but that initial abandonment sticks in my mind.
Green Party Candidate Charlie Taylor is no politician, and I mean that in the best possible way. The guy is very bright, candid, energetic. I greatly enjoyed our interview because the educator in me saw the potential this guy has in just about any field. Charlie’s the one who would best fit in to the annual maple syrup team at the farm. The Green Party is the perfect place to lodge a protest vote, and I have kicked myself ever since the last election for not voting for Neil Kudrinko, who in my mind was the best candidate. Instead I continued to grit my teeth and vote Liberal, for a candidate who barely gave me the time of day.
Liberal Candidate Ray Heffernan’s a nice guy, but running for MPP is no way to while away a long convalescence after a car crash. He’s out of his league. But I greatly respect Dalton McGuinty and want him to continue as our premier. I like the guy’s vision, his integrity. This may fly in the face of the Tory bloggers who call him a liar. So be it. Dalton McGuinty has a history of doing what he thinks needs to be done and taking the heat politically for doing the right thing. Like a good parent. His kids like him. So does his wife. The McGuinty campaign doesn’t have to harp about family values. They’re so obvious they don’t need mentioning.
Dalton McGuinty is the antithesis of Mike Harris, and this has caused me to vote for a number of local pylons over the last few elections.
Then we come to NDP Candidate David Lundy, whose name I originally misspelled as “Lamb” after our interview. He turned up an hour late for our interview. Apparently “noon” means something different to an NDP staffer than it does to a Leeds County farmer.
But Lundy was worth the wait. He’s a public service union executive, a boardroom type. For the first time in an interview (apart from the one last year with Michael Ignatieff) I felt as though I was above my pay grade here. Lundy controlled the interview, giving me precise and well-thought-out answers.
At one point he launched into a bit of dialectic about voter apathy I had heard from Heffernan and again from Taylor, so I called him on it. “Those guys have been stealing my ideas ever since the first all-candidates meeting. By the time my turn comes all of my best arguments have been said by the other two.” Come to think of it, Ray Heffernan had mangled the dialectic as though he didn’t really understand what he was saying, though Charlie Taylor had nailed it. Points to Lundy.
Lundy evaded questions about Bob Rae’s legacy with the elegance of a figure skater. His initial anecdote about Stephen Harper’s arrogance resonated with me. The only time he was off guard was when I wheeled out a quote from a Sun Energy executive naming Crosby the solar-panel capital of Canada. “Where was that reported?” he asked urgently.
“I haven’t written it yet. It’s still in my notes.”
So who should get my vote in a race where the only real question is whether Steve Clark will get more than two-thirds of the votes, or less?
David Lundy won it with his comment, “The Liberals are not a factor in Leeds-Grenville.” But I’m still cheering for Dalton, and hoping for a Liberal majority.
It must be an exciting time to be an NDP.
I met Stephen Harper once on Parliament Hill while I was lobbying for Working Families. He came across as arrogant and dismissive. I shook his hand. As soon as I identified myself as a labour activist he said, “Oh, you’re one of those.” He ripped his hand from mine, spun on his heel and turned away.
What have you learned campaigning in Leeds-Grenville?
People here are hard-working and they are really struggling to get by.
The NDP this time seems to be running on pocketbook issues, rather than ideals.
I kind of disagree with that question. I don’t think it’s idealistic to put families first. We have always advocated for the services families need to live a good life. That is what the NDP has historically tried to do.
Andrea Horwath gave a good account of herself in the debate.
Absolutely. In terms of a popular summer movie, Andrea has magic, and the other two are Muggles. She is the most down-to-earth and likeable of the three major candidates. She has real leadership qualities and has put forth the most financially responsible platform.
In the September 13th issue of the CCPA Monitor, economist Jim Stanford pointed out that there is a $10 billion hole in the Conservative platform. And not one graphic in the Change Book is to scale.
Now you slag the Liberal platform.
No need. The Liberals are not a factor in Leeds-Grenville.
Which is the more powerful influence on the campaign? Jack Layton or the memory of Bob Rae’s NDP government?
Definitely Jack Layton. People are longing to vote for something positive. At the door I get a lot of: “Are you running a negative campaign? No? Ok we’ll vote for you.”
Jack’s life and especially his letter spoke to Canadians, encouraging them to make a positive choice. Working together we can do better. He gave Canadians the opportunity to make a positive choice.
Campaigning on slurs like “The Tax Man” isn’t educating the public, it’s scaring them. If your platform has real worth, then you should be able to run on it. I’m running on mine.
As of this morning, an aggregation of the polls has the NDP with the support of 25.2% of Ontario residents over the age of 18. Can you get these Ontarians to polls?
That’s always the challenge. The third or fourth most often-heard statement at the door has been, “I don’t vote because things never change and my vote won’t make a difference. These guys all say one thing and do something else.” My response to that has been that by not voting, you are accepting the status quo, and has that worked for you?
If you want things to change, you have to take a chance, get off the couch, go to the polls and have your say. That is the only way we can ever change. Ten years ago in Florida it took less than 700 votes to elect a President. Your vote counts.
With Steve Clark shooting to beat the 67% he got last time?
As we walked out of the meeting with the Ottawa Citizen Editorial Board, Steve turned to me and remarked, “Well, I guess I won’t be mailing this one in.”
On Sunday John Ivison of the National Post called your leader, Andrea Horwath, “the most dangerous woman in Ontario.”
She’s determined, resourceful, capable and likeable. Those are all great attributes which any woman would be pleased to claim as her own, and any man would be pleased to associate with.
I don’t think that’s what he meant. She looks as though she will be holding the balance of power come Friday, October 7th, and that causes Ivison some worry because of her lack of experience at governance.
We are running to win, and we have formed government before.
The Rae crew meant well but were inexperienced.
But when we look at fiscal responsibility across the board at the provincial level, NDP provincial parties have been the most fiscally responsible, while meeting the social needs of the constituents.
What happened to the NDP’s green platform?
We do support green energy as a way to bring jobs, opportunity and money back into rural Ontario. Andrea Horwach is on record as supporting that, as am I.
At a meeting in Crosby last week a Sun Energy representative said that Crosby is about to become the solar panel capital of Canada.
I think it’s great. It will bring jobs, money and opportunities to rural Leeds-Grenville and reverse two decades of zombie economics as practiced by the Liberals and Conservatives which has drained away our youth, our opportunity, and the money that makes our local economy healthy.
How about trees?
Harris dismantled the reforestation program which had served Ontario since 1919. McGuinty replaced it with a privatized shadow of itself which produces approximately a quarter of the seedlings formerly produced.
This is a similar story in far too many government services. Just today we hear on the radio that Hudak is going to dismantle the LHINs and shift responsibility for administration back to the Ministry of Health. But under the Harris Government of which Hudak was a part, Ministry of Health staffing was slashed by more than half. They no longer have the expertise nor the staffing to be able to do that job. Staff went from just over 5000 to less than 2500 now. It’s irresponsible.
Is the welfare state dead in Canada?
If Harper has anything to do with it, yes. I believe, the NDP believes, that everyone should have an opportunity to succeed and to live a life that is as fulfilling and rewarding as possible.
Did Stephen Harper drive a stake through Tim Hudak’s chances when he made his trifecta comment last summer at Rob Ford’s barbecue?
A little bit of the arrogance slipped out. I think he did. Harper is taking Ontario voters for granted.
But this time in Leeds-Grenville they are worried: Tim Hudak has been here twice to prop up Steve’s campaign. Seeing our NDP surge, Andrea Howath has been here to speak to Leeds-Grenville twice. Dalton McGuinty, recognizing the trend, has stayed away.
Your leader, Mike Schreiner, has been shut out of the Leaders’ Debate by T.V. Ontario, CBC, Global and Sun TV, even though Manitoba Green Party leader James Beddome debated on CBC this week, and B.C., New Brunswick, and P.E.I. have had Green participation in their televised debates.
Obviously it’s disappointing that Mike was shut out. We received 8% of the popular vote in the last election. Over 350,000 Ontarians voted for the Green Party. These people deserve to see the leader of the party they support matched up against the leaders of the old parties.
The media are corporate entities and they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo because the status quo works quite well for corporations. They keep getting raising the bar as the Green Party grows and enjoys more success. This is why I tell people that it’s really important to vote for the Green Party at this point because we have been working for several decades to build support for the Green Party and we’re on the verge of a breakthrough.
What’s the point of preaching proportional representation when the big three do everything they can to keep you away from the table?
Some form of proportional representation is crucial because there is still this idea lingering that a vote for the Green Party is a wasted ballot because we might not win in any particular riding. This leads to strategic voting whereby people vote against the choice they find the most odious, but not in favour of the one they actually prefer.
When you consider that people who vote for the Green Party are really voting their conscience and not voting strategically, it is remarkable that we got 8% of the popular vote in the last election. Now if we were to switch to a proportional representation system or a single transferable vote system (which I prefer) I think we would see the Green Party vote double overnight because so many people like the Green Party but choose not to vote for us for strategic reasons.
I’ll bite: what is a single transferable vote system?
STV is a system they have in Ireland. Basically you get a ballot and you rank your choices. First, everybody’s first choice is counted. Then the candidate with the fewest first choices is eliminated, and then all those ballots which had that candidate as a first choice then have the second choice counted, and so on.
In the local by-election in 2010 the PC candidate won with 67% of the vote. What are you trying to achieve in running against the blue machine?
7.5 to 8% of voters in Leeds-Grenville favour the Green Party and they have the right to express that at the ballot box. We need to run to ensure we don’t lose the credibility we have built up over the last two decades.
It is frustrating obviously to run in this riding. There is the feeling that the Conservatives are the legacy party. I think there is a certain amount of intellectual laziness: people don’t really bother to inform themselves that the flavour of the PC party has changed since the days of their fathers and grandfathers. It’s definitely no longer a party which emphasizes fiscal responsibility, wholesome values, and a concern for the common good.
Solar farms are on everyone’s mind in this area.
The green energy act that the Liberals introduced was a great piece of legislation that was horribly implemented. And it was done so badly that there’s has been a backlash against green energy. This is very, very dangerous. It puts us in a position that there is a real danger that Tim Hudak and the Conservatives may get into power and send us back to the dark ages as far as energy is concerned.
What makes green energy work in countries like Germany and Denmark is community ownership. Green energy projects should be a revenue generator for individuals and communities who are willing participants in the projects. In Ontario the Green Energy Act has turned into just another corporate cash grab.
Rather than giving billion dollar contracts to Samsung and allowing them to make money at the expense of Ontario residents, we think Ontario residents should be investing in the infrastructure so that they’d be getting cheques from the power company rather than bills. I think you’ll find that communities are much more accepting of wind and solar projects if they are making money from them.
In 2009 when I asked a friend in high tech about the health-records debacle which had cost taxpayers a billion dollars over ten years, he shrugged and dismissed the mess with: “Sometimes that happens.”
eHealth was a governance problem created by the Conservatives, but the Liberals didn’t do it any favours. Once again, poor implementation has soured the public on a good piece of legislation. Having health records online makes sense, but there’s no reason why it should cost a billion dollars.
One of the problems in Ontario is that there are very limited consequences for mismanagement in the political sphere. The three old parties take turns misgoverning the province. And when people get fed up, they rotate in a new flavour of the same old stuff and nothing really changes. That’s why we need a new party.
And why will the new party not end up just like the others when it has had a turn at the rotation?
To me it is a question of philosophy, and the Green Party has a fundamentally different philosophy from the old parties. We really feel that the old parties represent big government, big corporations, and big labour. The Green Party is all about empowering individuals and communities to take ownership of their own destinies.
We don’t offer up easy-sounding, quick-fix solutions to complex problems. We try to find the right solution, even if it doesn’t seem politically appealing on the surface. The other parties are promising candy and we say, “Eat your vegetables.”
Dalton McGuinty’s running on his record. How is this a good thing?
When the Liberals took office after the Harris/Eves years, our health care system was a mess. We had long wait times, our nursing staff was demoralized, and there was a doctor shortage. Under the McGuinty Government we have hired nurses back, built new hospitals and renovated those which had fallen into disrepair. The major rebuild of the hospital in Smiths Falls is a good example.
We are encouraging new doctors to locate in rural areas, and we have gone from having the longest surgical wait times in the county to the shortest.
With whom would you rather have lunch, Rob Ford or Margaret Atwood?
Definitely Margaret Atwood, because she thinks. It’s as simple as that. Margaret has long been renowned for her opinions and writing about things that a lot of contemporary authors shy away from. Rob Ford, on the other side, hasn’t read any of her books…
What has the McGuinty Government done for Leeds-Grenville in the last eight years?
Burnbrae, Trillium Pharmaceuticals, and Northern Cable come immediately to mind.
It sounds as though Tim Hudak is trying to make Ontario into a hate state like Arizona with his comments on the $10,000 business grant.
Hudak is talking about immigrants jumping the queue, and that is absolutely not the case. These are hardworking Canadian Citizens already working in Canada, but who need upgrading in order to meet Canadian certification standards in their fields. We’re talking about getting doctors and pharmacists and engineers out of a cab or a restaurant kitchen and into the careers that they have already spent many years to do. The meanest part is that Hudek is villainizing immigrants, blaming them for using our tax dollars, taking our jobs, when that is absolutely not the case.
We are putting together job programs targeted to the specific areas. In Eastern Ontario we are doing the Eastern Ontario Development Fund. We realize that job creation is not a one-size-fits-all task. We have to tailor it to fit the very diverse needs of the people of our province.
What is the EODF? It’s a fund to support job creation and entrepreneurial spirit because it recognized Ontario is economically depressed. Funding for the new egg-grading station at Burnbrea came through the EODF, for example.
I have seen bad government and government that disregards peoples’ needs and their history. I spent a lot of time in Belarus and have seen what a dictator like Lukashenko can do to demoralize a nation. When our leaders start making divisive, mean-spirited comments just to gain points in an election or in public opinion polls, people lose faith in our system. Whether they are new Canadians or Canadians who have been in this country for over five generations like me.
With T.V. and Internet, Facebook and all of our social media, we have gotten to a point where we care less about the truth and more about the sound bite. And that is not the country or province that I brought my children here to experience. In our family Canada Day is as big a holiday as Christmas.
It surprises me that no one in the media (except me) mentions the 50 Million Trees Program which the McGuinty Government started in 2007.
Which is huge. It’s had a massive impact on our green presence in Ontario. Ontario is absolutely healthier because of this program. The small amount spent on this project is restoring the health of our kids. We have fewer kids on asthma inhalers now than ten years ago.
Winston Churchill once said, the best argument against democracy is to talk to a voter for five minutes.
You get what you want from our government because you are involved. “I don’t get anything because I am the average person.” “What have you ever asked your government for?” “Nothing.” “Then you get exactly what you have asked for.” Our government can’t function without each of us being part of it, and when we sit back and vote apathetically, or vote not at all, or vote our prejudices and our wallets, we are going to get the government that we deserve.
People in Leeds-Grenville have complained for decades that we are ignored by Toronto, that it‘s going downhill, yet we have sent the exact same party to Queen’s park for over nine decades. How can you expect a different result when you constantly do the same thing?
Anything to say to the readers?
Without a solid family unit, you can’t go anywhere in politics.
As a lifelong political junkie I used to watch Jean and Aline Chrétien when he got up to speak. She would give him a look and you could see the fear and nervousness melt away and he would give the most phenomenal speech.
I look at Connie and my kids when nervous, and everything changes. Politics in our family has been very important. In this election my older daughter will get to cast her first ballot as a Canadian. She is so excited.
Steve Clark MPP, P.C. Candidate for Leeds-Grenville, would like to have lunch with Margaret Atwood… as long as Rob Ford is invited too
September 12, 2011
Steve, this is the first time we have talked since your election to the Ontario Legislature in 2010. Do you have any anecdotes about getting to and from your new job at Queen’s Park?
I told this one last week at a fish fry in Elgin: With my hairline in winter I have a collection of about five toques and I alternate them at random. It’s an eight-minute walk to the Legislature. One day an elderly woman commented that she liked my toque. Not remembering which one I was wearing, I pulled it off and saw the square yellow Farmers-feed-cities logo and pointed it out to her. But she gazed upward at the smooth dome which the toque had revealed. “Maybe you could talk to the hair farmers and they could help you out,” she suggested. It was an interesting comment at 7:30 in the morning a block away from Queen’s Park.
I wrote a column last winter about how Mike Harris eliminated the pension plan for MPPs. Have the Queen’s Park Caucus found a replacement for it yet?
I read that column. I was surprised, because most people you talk to think that MPPs have a gold-plated pension plan. But at the provincial level we don’t. We have an RSP which is just a 10% salary holdback. I knew when I ran for the office that a pension wasn’t there and it didn’t influence me in running. It’s just a fact of the job.
Whom would you like to have lunch with, Margaret Atwood or Rob Ford?
I think a more interesting lunch would be with Margaret Atwood AND Rob Ford. It would be a lively session with a lot to talk about.
A Toronto Star colleague from Renfrew County recently commented upon how the Eastern Ontario ridings are gradually falling to the Hillier faction of the Ontario PC Party, with Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, Carleton-Mississippi Mills, turning dark Blue. How about Leeds-Grenville? Are you a red Tory or a blue Tory?
I don’t think of myself as red or blue. I represent people. But if I have to paint myself, the colour is blue.
Fresh out of Queen’s I ran against a sitting mayor to give the people of Brockville choice. Then I ran against Bob Runciman in 1987 for the P.C. nomination when the riding of Leeds-Grenville was created. Some years later I went to work for him as his executive assistant. Then when Bob was appointed to the Senate I was part of the contested nomination to fill his seat, and I won.
Some of the talk in this election has to do with the contested nomination in Carleton-Mississippi Mills. I have run against an incumbent mayor, and against a sitting MPP, and I think part of our democracy is that that option is available for candidates and citizens.
Tim Hudak has gone negative on a small program to help doctors, accountants and architects get their non-Canadian qualifications upgraded so they can practice here. His attack ad makes Ontario sound like one of the American hate states. What’s your take on this?
I’ve been asked this lots of times in the last week. First of all, the Liberals keep changing their explanation on this subject. I’m not running away from the fact that we called it an affirmative action plan for foreign workers. But we still believe even today that it is unfair and unequal. It shouldn’t matter whether you are here in Canada for one year or twenty years, you have to have a program which is fair and equal for all.
But there’s a doctor shortage.
Yes, there is a doctor shortage. The two pillars of our program are health and education. And I think from my experience in the last 18 months we should put as many dollars as possible into front-line health care, including funds to support doctors and nurses.
The Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) is a health bureaucracy which has been set up by the McGuinty Government to act as a political cover for the Minister of Health. Under a Tim Hudak Ontario PC government, the LHINs would be abolished, and all of those dollars put into front-line health care. Physicians are agreeing with me that our position is the right way to go.
In the Legislature I have said many times that these unelected, unaccountable, and largely anonymous bodies aren’t meeting our communities’ needs.
Solar panels are a big deal here.
In the House I have talked about the solar operations in Rideau Lakes Township, but the McGuinty Green Energy Act takes planning authority for solar projects away from local government. We believe there should be respect for local decision-making on renewable energy projects. If local council can approve or deny an application for a subdivision, there should be the same respect regarding a solar farm.
For people with existing contracts under MICROFIT the burning question is whether we are going to honour those contracts. Yes, we are. If you have a signed agreement in place, we are going to honour it. In some cases across other parts of Ontario there are larger, controversial plans for wind and solar installations which we may have to review. We’ll have to deal with those on a case-by case basis.
We refer to the Green Energy Act as the failed energy experiment. The rate has to become more sustainable. People in the solar industry tell me that the rates come down as the projects move forward.
Then you see solar farms as here to stay.
No party is against renewable energy. It is here to stay. The issue is sustainability and affordability. Moving forward we have to have an open, fair and transparent process for pricing.
Anything to say to the readers?
Over the last year and a half I have tried to be an extremely active MPP. I have attended as many community events as possible. I like to talk about Leeds-Grenville in the House. I like to talk about the people, the activities, and the communities which make up my riding. It is a beautiful corner of Ontario and it would be an honour for me to continue to represent the people of Leeds-Grenville at Queen’s Park after October 6th.
Two years’ teacher training in Ontario?
September 1, 2011
Premier Dalton McGuinty recently announced that a re-elected Liberal Government will extend teacher training to two years, effective immediately. My initial reaction to this announcement was one of satisfaction. When I graduated with a B.Ed I was so clueless that I didn’t even know it. It wasn’t until after a master’s that I came to understand what education is. It took that extra year.
But then I thought a little more.
In the summer of ‘72 Bet and I were a week away from our wedding when a pair of telephone calls turned things upside down. The first was from the University of Windsor, offering me admission to first year law. The other call the same evening came from the registrar of the Faculty of Education at Queen’s, asking me when I would be arriving to complete my registration.
While obsessing about law school all spring, I had clean forgotten about the application to education at my alma mater. A corporation had recruited me out of my B.A. class, moved me to Ottawa, and was grooming me for management, promising the earth. But they had lied to me three times in the last three weeks, and their string was running out.
So it came down to a question of logistics: could we handle a move to Windsor? could we manage a trip back to Kingston for another year?
At that pivotal point in our lives, one extra year sounded manageable and three or four did not. After years of construction jobs to pay my way through school I very much wanted a paycheck, but married students qualified for student loans, so we could swing another year.
Life is great for newly-weds in Kingston. Towards the end of the spring term the principal of a new school in Smiths Falls found me a spot, and Bet landed a job at the Medical Centre opening in Newboro. We moved home to Forfar.
In the fall I started with a grade eight class and discovered that I loved kids. I liked my colleagues, the work, even the parents, and they seemed to like me. It was an honour and a privilege to be a teacher.
But the salary schedule sent me a clear message: I held minimal qualifications for the job. With effort, though, I could improve my pay. For the next twelve years, winter and summer, I took courses.
In the process of thickening my wallet I developed a more thorough understanding of English literature, then education, and later educational administration. Before long I moved to the secondary school across town, then became head of English at another, and later vice-principal for a while. By all reports it was a pretty good career.
But if, on that pivotal evening, the Queen’s registrar had told me I would have had to remain a student for two more years before earning a salary, I probably would have picked law or stayed in business.
My suggestion to Mr. McGuinty: kids need the very best young teachers, not just the ones whose parents can afford an extra year of university. Keep the one-year full-time course for teacher qualification, but adjust the salary grid to make the second year, full- or part-time, the only logical step for the young professional. That way the penniless-but-eager candidate won’t be lost to the school system because of finances.
Brigette DePape’s act of civil disobedience
June 6, 2011
In 1846 Henry David Thoreau went to jail for his refusal to pay poll tax to a government waging what he considered an unjust war. His essay “Civil Disobedience” became a textbook for peaceful protest against an oppressive authority. A century later Mohandas Gandhi pointed out to newspaper readers in Britain the disparity between principle and practice in the Empire’s treatment of citizens in South Africa, and later in India.
Last Friday senate page Brigette DePape held up a hand-lettered STOP HARPER! sign during the Speech from the Throne. This act fits the definition of civil disobedience. It was a protest made with forethought by a serious individual who was aware of the consequences of her action and prepared to accept them.
Professor Ned Franks huffed in The Toronto Star: “Brigette DePape’s breaking of the rules governing the behaviour of the staff of Parliament was not civil disobedience. She was not protesting a specific law or policy. She was simply objecting to the results of a democratic nationwide election in which she, along with every other citizen 18 years or older, was entitled to vote. Her act was amusing, and held a sort of childish charm. But it offended her professional responsibilities.”
But I fear tradition’s egg was broken long before Brigette trampled a bit of the shell into the Senate floor. Further, I am not sure that in her view four years of unbalanced power does not constitute a specific set of policies. In interviews she has repeatedly mentioned large expenditures on fighter jets, prisons, cuts to social programs, and a lack of climate legislation – a set of policies in her view disastrous to Canadians.
In fact I would suggest that the target of Ms. DePape was Stephen Harper himself. Through her smuggled STOP HARPER! sign she pointed out to him that while voter tracking, mini-campaigns, attack ads and Zionism may enable his MPs to win just enough votes to form a majority, it takes policies which reach out to Canadians if he is to win their hearts. She told him in no uncertain terms that there is more to a mandate than 156 seats.
In fact DePape commented in the CBC interview that only one in four eligible voters supported the Conservative Party of Canada in the last election, and this shows that Stephen Harper does not represent the interests of all Canadians, particularly those of her generation.
In the face of massive power, without any checks upon the government except those of tradition which Harper has proven all too willing to dismiss (ministerial accountability, rights of the legislature, manual on the disruption of parliamentary committees), how else but by protest and civil disobedience will Canadians affect the direction of their country if they believe it is headed in the wrong direction?
If we accept that the people of Canada have given Stephen Harper a strong mandate in spite of the contempt-of-parliament charges, then by the same mandate anyone who wishes to speak out at any time in the House has the right to do so, because Canadians have made it clear that they don’t care about parliamentary protocol. With the actions of his government over the last five years Harper has shattered parliamentary tradition and can’t now hide behind the fragments of the shell.
Robert Silver ridiculed Brigette DePape’s use of the phrase “Arab spring” in her call for a protest movement in Canada. He correctly pointed out how the life-and-death struggles in North Africa have no Canadian equivalent. But in today’s virtual world a word takes on new context and meaning whenever it is uttered. The best Silver can say is that, up until DePape used the phrase in a CBC interview, “Arab spring” meant rebellion against a homicidal authority. No one can say for sure what the phrase now means, or what it will mean tomorrow, for television creates reality, and Brigette DePape showed last Friday that she understands this better than most.
The Storm
May 3, 2011
Man, what a week! It started last Thursday when the wind blew Bet across a parking lot in Kingston and up against the side of the car. On our way home Mom called to tell us a limb from the huge maple outside the front door had blown over on the house. Then both cell phones went out. These combined for a tense trip back to the farm.
By the time we had gingerly winched the limb from the house and sorted out the damage, it became clear that the real problem was the torn roof on the plastic storage building. A bolt on an end support had snapped, allowing the 2X6 to flap around and puncture the roof membrane, leading to a tear the length of the structure. The repair became a race to protect the stuff in the shed from the rain.
Then came the royal wedding. As the world watched, the British people showed us how it’s done. It was a magnificent, early-morning spectacle.
Then we were back to the vulgarity of the federal election campaign with its attack ads and sleaze. A steady diet of this took us up to 9:30 Monday night when another storm swept across Canada, toppling many aged and hollow incumbents and allowing the younger and more vigorous candidates some space to flourish.
Like the storm which tore across our property, the effects of this political wind were pretty random.
I wonder what it’s like to be Ruth Ellen Brosseau this morning? Formerly a bartender at a pub on the Carleton University campus, the St. Lawrence College alumnus who barely speaks French is now M.P. for Berthier-Maskinongé, an Eastern Townships riding three hours from her home in Gatineau. She polled 40% of the vote despite never visiting the riding and spending a week of the campaign playing slot machines in Las Vegas. Her main political experience to date has involved finding homes for stray cats. Why does this sound like the scenario for an American romantic comedy?
Another NDP place-filler, Isabelle Maguire, ran her Richmond-Arthabaska campaign from France. That didn’t work. The Bloc incumbent campaigned hard and won by 700 votes, about 1%. Quebec voters don’t seem to like that kind of French. Look at the way pundit Chantal Hebert, usually a Liberal sympathizer, never missed a chance to tear into Michael Ignatieff. Could it be his spoken French was better than hers? My sister spent seven years in France and retired from a career as a French teacher, but waiters in Montreal will only respond to her in English.
Justin Trudeau survived the storm. Strong, decent candidates like Ted Hsu in Kingston and John MacKay in Toronto did well. Elizabeth May swept away cabinet minister Gary Lunn to earn a seat and at long last gain a voice for the Green Party.
But in Leeds-Grenville the Marjory Loveys campaign was no match for the combined NDP and Conservative waves. Gord Brown coasted to a massive win after running a decent and dignified campaign. In an interview in my living room I discovered that Gord’s a pretty good guy, loves his riding and his job, and deserved to win.
Last night I watched Michael Ignatieff’s closing speech. A total defeat is in many ways satisfying. It puts an end to the loose ends, the uncertainty, the persistent demands for compromise. It allows one to regain a measure of dignity that scrambling against the prevailing wind never can. Life in opposition must have been hell for Michael Ignatieff.
What was the turning point? Every pundit in Canada will offer one. For me it was that nauseating attack ad against Stephen Harper and health care. When Ignatieff allowed that ad and the others which followed, he gave up the high ground and hollowed out his party’s campaign.
Canadians rebelled at the mud-slinging, choosing the guy with the smile, the cane, and a wacko promise to cap credit card interest rates at 5%. But master strategist Guy Giorno played vote splits, micro-campaigns, and Liberal panic at the NDP rise in the polls to boost the Harper campaign to a majority.
So now we volunteers must rush out and gather up spent candidate signs. The more quickly we do this, the more relieved everyone will be to see the most visible debris from the storm cleared away.
In the last year and a half you have knocked on thousands of doors and have probably patted half the dogs in Leeds-Grenville. What have you learned?
(Laughing) I have learned that if I let the dog lick my hand, it stops barking long enough for me to talk to the owner.
Although many people have lived in Leeds-Grenville for generations, others have moved to Leeds-Grenville because of our strong communities and the beauty and recreational opportunities. And because of the Internet, a surprising number work from their homes. One guy manages a 400-person network in all parts of the world from his home in North Grenville. A woman works full time for a Bay Street law firm from her home in Gananoque. A Delta woman works for IBM from her home.
What is the ballot question for this election?
This election is about two things: one is the Liberal vs Conservative choices on what to spend money on; the other is whether people approve of Mr. Harper’s style of government.
The Conservatives are keen on mega-prisons and corporate tax cuts and sloppy military procurements. They’re often not bothering to get tenders and in the case of the F-35 jets, are signing on for something not completely developed yet. And they are stubborn enough to stay committed to it even as other countries are backing away.
Most economists agree that corporate tax cuts are not the best way to create jobs. Analysts at the Department of Finance, Jim Flaherty’s own department, have placed corporate tax cuts at the bottom of the job-creation list, well below investments in education and families.
The reason investments in families create jobs is that families will spend the money immediately, multiplying the economic benefit, while corporations are already sitting on hordes of cash.
The Liberals want to invest in education as well as other measures to help families get over the hurdles of raising kids, saving for pensions, and looking after gravely ill family members. And we have specific programs to do all of those things.
What about Mr. Harper’s approach to government?
I find it secretive, deceitful, and wasteful.
The most recent examples are their refusal to provide parliament or the public with the costs of the proposed legislation, of the cost to the taxpayers. Siphoning fifty million dollars of money intended for the improvement of our border infrastructure into washrooms and gazebos scattered around the riding of the Minister of Industry. The wasteful G20 photo op and the fake lake. More recently spending millions of dollars on taxpayer-paid ads to announce stimulus programs that had already expired.
Perhaps the most troubling thing about the Conservatives’ approach was that they shut down debate and fired or silenced anyone who disagreed with them. The head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Agency and the Veteran’s Ombudsman are but two of many examples of principled individuals fired for doing their jobs.
Why should we care?
There are so many issues we need to come to grips with as a country: jobs, climate change, dealing with our aging population, Canada’s place in the world. If we don’t have honest and substantive debates about these issues, we won’t find the right solutions.
Do the Harper Conservatives have too much respect for the free market?
I think they don’t see a role for government, so they’re offloading all responsibility for our economic direction and job creation to the big corporations, leaving our future in the hands of those whose chief requirement is to maximize quarterly profit. We need to balance the short-term thinking of the corporations with long-term plans and investments in education, research and technology. That’s the government’s job.
What things do people bring up most?
People are embarrassed and angry about question period. Teachers in particular complain about this. Personally I think we should try taking the TV cameras out of the House of Commons.
Jobs and job security are both huge issues. People who work for companies going through corporate transitions are seriously worried about the future of their pension plans.
I see lots of potential for jobs here. People with skills want to live in our communities. So let’s make sure we are as attractive as possible to startup and growing small businesses. Green energy is already creating jobs, and can create more.
Can tourism in Leeds-Grenville survive a high dollar?
I think it can because we do have a first class product in our land, our people, and our history.
As a landscape painter I take great joy in the beauty of the Westport area. One great opportunity is to prepare a Michelin-type tourist guide for artist’s studios and galleries in Leeds-Grenville, integrating our tourism and artistic communities.
How are the late stages of the local campaign going?
Not that I notice, but in my neighbourhood we’re winning the sign war, 8 to 6 (laughing).
Quite a few people have told me they plan to cast a strategic Liberal vote this time. I tell them their votes are safe with me. I’m a fiscal conservative, a social progressive, and a dedicated environmentalist. So I encourage those fed up with Stephen Harper’s behaviour to band together and make me their MP.
Steve Pettibone has a fine profile of Marjory Loveys at http://www.recorder.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3091585
the Walnut Diary 