October 15th, 2008 Andrew Cash
By Andrew Cash
My plan is to cab it up to Dundas West to Gerard Kennedy’s election party, soak up a few losing vibes there and then head back down to Bloor for the Peggy Nash victory bash.
The atmosphere is muted just after the polls close, a few dozen Kennedy faithful and some television cameras sitting around in the Flamingo Banquet Hall on what I presume is Kennedy’s political death watch.
Soon, however, Kennedy is 1,000 votes in front of Nash. Suddenly, there are more people in the small hall, the volume is louder, the beer caps are popping and, oops, looks like I went to the wrong party first.
Yet it’s a victory that comes with mixed feelings, and those are on display. The crowd cheers when Kennedy arrives, but there’s none of that unbridled enthusiasm usually on display at election-night victory celebrations, especially unexpected ones.
Kennedy dodged a bullet here. If he hadn’t won Parkdale-High Park, not only would his political career have been over, with hundreds of thousands of dollars still owing on his leadership campaign, but history would remember him primarily for his decision to back the hapless Stéphane Dion.
Perhaps the reason for the muted enthusiasm here is the Liberal bloodletting ahead.
Kennedy’s victory is a loss for Parkdale-High Park. Sure, he’s a compelling figure – he’s hard not to fall for. But he’s going to be subsumed by the Liberal psychodrama in Ottawa whether he wants to be or not.
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October 8th, 2008 Andrew Cash
Libs and NDP can take power through an accord – if they can ditch oversized egos
By Andrew Cash
As opposition candidates furiously scramble for your vote, try this one on them when they knock on your door: coalition government.
Other than oversized egos and playground immaturity, there is no good reason why the Libs, the NDP and possibly the Bloc and the Greens (if they elect someone) couldn’t cobble together a working – hell, an exciting – government that really does represent the majority of Canadians.
It’s either that or more of Harper’s take-no-prisoners minority stylings. So if you don’t relish the idea of another election in two years (that would make four in six years), there are alternatives.
But pols and the Canadian people need to fasten their seat belts and get ready for it.
Pre-eminent Canadian constitutional expert Peter Russell thinks that both Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton need to begin making a Plan B, assuming that each of their Plan As – becoming PM – doesn’t go as planned.
“Plan B would give the Governor General an option she didn’t have when Harper arrogantly asked for the dissolution of the last Parliament,” he says.
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October 8th, 2008 Andrew Cash
We don’t care if our leaders are strong – we only want them to look it
By Andrew Cash
With the financial crisis deepening day by day, the pundits are finally framing the election as “Who will be the best leader in a disintegrating economy?”
But I’m doubtful that’s what the discourse is really about. More likely, the real question is: “Who has the best look of leadership?”
Stéphane Dion appears sincere, emotional but ineffectual; Stephen Harper avuncular, measured but oblivious. And Jack Layton? He looks like he’s going to run a half-marathon as soon as he finishes the interview.
So what do we want in a leader anyway?
According to former Jean Chretien strategist Warren Kinsella, “Leadership hinges on portraying strength, certainty and the sense that this leader is someone who is like you. It boils down to 70 per cent appearance, 10 per cent what you actually say and 20 per cent how you say it.”
Generally, experts say the public prefers candidates who broadcast steadfastness but stay cool. “Usually, those who show a lot of emotion tend not to get elected,” says Harold Simpkins, a marketing prof at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal.
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September 23rd, 2008 Andrew Cash
Tarnished golden boy tries to resurrect hope against people’s choice Nash
By Andrew Cash
It’s a glorious, sunny Saturday morning, the second-last day of summer, but Gerard Kennedy is standing in the middle of a shitstorm.
Mainstreeting on posh Bloor West Village, where even the No Frills seems high-end, Kennedy, shirt sleeves rolled up, suit jacket perpetually thrown over his shoulder, spends much of the morning sticking up for the guy he made Liberal boss, Stéphane Dion.
“You picked the wrong guy,” says more than one passerby.
“You should have been the leader,” remark others.
A number of the locals stop to give him an earful about how bad Dion’s sales job of the Green Shift has been.
While it isn’t all bad news, it’s clear that there’s more on the line for Kennedy than simply knocking off popular NDP incumbent Peggy Nash. Like maybe his political career.
“That’s a no-brainer,” he says of the stakes in this campaign.
He’s still in debt from his failed leadership bid, his party’s campaign has yet to catch a big wave, and many blame him as leadership kingmaker. The former provincial education minister needs a win.
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September 7th, 2008 Andrew Cash
What are the chances of a left-wing coalition government?
By Andrew Cash
The horses have left the corral: An election has been called.
Governor General Michaelle Jean has seemingly had to swallow the fact that 15 months after she signed into law fixed election dates, her first minister has decided to do exactly what the law was supposed to prevent. Namely, enabling a sitting Prime Minister to control the timing of elections for pure political advantage.
But what now? The well financed Team Harper (which is really Team Harris with a new captain) has the right side of the field all to itself – roughly between 30 and 36 per cent of voters depending on what day it is.
The opposition parties crowd the left but their combined support represents a resounding majority of Canadians. What to do? How’s this: let’s forget about strategic voting.
When opposition candidates knock on your door try this one on them: coalition government. Tell your thick-necked candidates to forget about the bloodsport on embarassing display each and every day the House of Commons sits. If the next election results in another minority parliament, tell them to get the boss of their political gang to sit down with the boss of the other gang and friggin work together for Canadians.
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April 10th, 2008 Andrew Cash
Getting past the petty
We can’t make peace our foreign policy till pols stop political blood sport
By Andrew Cash
Loath as I am to admit it, music alone won’t change our war-making ways.
That’s why the April 4 all-party (except the governing one) panel kicking off a conference the next day promoting the idea of a Canadian Department of Peace at Friends House on Lowther is such a tonic.
Not only do the 250 mostly veteran anti-war types in the pews at the Church of the Holy Trinity hear the Greens’ Elizabeth May, the NDP’s Olivia Chow and the Libs’ Borys Wrzesnewskyj sing from the same peace page, but the non-partisan collegiality of the event underscores the idea that, if peace-building is ever mainstreamed, humanity will make an evolutionary jump.
Speaking of neanderthals, politics is a blood sport. But when you see Wrzesnewskyj applauding Chow’s moving description of what NDPer Alexa McDonough could do if she were minister of peace, Chow praising May’s support for a federal conflict resolution department, and both May and Chow clearly sympathizing with Wrzesnewskyj as he guardedly describes tensions in the Liberal party over Afghanistan, it tends to stand out.
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January 8th, 2008 Andrew Cash
Libs and NDP can take power through an accord – if they can ditch oversized egos
By Andrew Cash
As opposition candidates furiously scramble for your vote, try this one on them when they knock on your door: coalition government.
Other than oversized egos and playground immaturity, there is no good reason why the Libs, the NDP and possibly the Bloc and the Greens (if they elect someone) couldn’t cobble together a working – hell, an exciting – government that really does represent the majority of Canadians.
It’s either that or more of Harper’s take-no-prisoners minority stylings. So if you don’t relish the idea of another election in two years (that would make four in six years), there are alternatives.
But pols and the Canadian people need to fasten their seat belts and get ready for it.
Pre-eminent Canadian constitutional expert Peter Russell thinks that both Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton need to begin making a Plan B, assuming that each of their Plan As – becoming PM – doesn’t go as planned.
June 28th, 2007 Andrew Cash
Indian in us all
The elephant in the room of my family history is same one haunting the Canadian family
By Andrew Cash
There must be an aboriginal guy out there with the same name as me.
That’s my initial reaction to an invitation I receive in the mail to participate in a Statistics Canada survey on the living standards of native Canadians.
And in fact there is an Aboriginal guy with my name. Me. But it takes the disembodied voice of the StatsCan official to convince me of the fact. “Why are you sending this to me?” I ask the polished voice on the other end of the phone line.
After all, I’ve never identified myself as Aboriginal. Sure, my paternal grandmother was half Mohawk, born on Tyendinaga near Deseronto. But what am I doing on this list?
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Canadian, Human Rights, Now Magazine, Politics, Race Relations, Religion | 1 Comment »
April 19th, 2007 Andrew Cash
Real dirt on the tar sands
Tories are pumping a fivefold increase in production while we worry ourselves sick about leaf blowers
By Andrew Cash
It’s no wonder Stephen Harper can’t say “Kyoto” without choking. After all, thanks to the huge oil sands deposit in his Alberta backyard, we’ve got the second-largest oil reserves in the entire world, next to Saudi Arabia.
You probably already know that the sticky goo in northeastern Alberta is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. But while we’re all worrying ourselves sick about leaf blowers and incandescent bulbs, few realize the extent of the oil sands expansion being plotted. Do voters get that the Conservatives are expecting, and indeed pumping, a massive fivefold increase?
Welcome to the difference between official Harperspeak about going green and Tory tar sands machinations. And the politics are especially thick and sticky when Washington is factored in, since no matter who we elect, stopping any further development of our bituminous riches, or even slowing it down, is going to take a heroic rewiring of the Canada/U.S. power dynamic.
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