A liberal dose of nominations: jottings from a fundraiser

Four guys, each wanting to be our next Federal Liberal Party nominee, spoke to the party faithful on Tuesday night. One spoke over the crowd's head, one failed to connect, one was folksy and rambled and the last was a bit of all that and lost the crowd with a reference to a movie that few had seen (Bulworth). Three of the four wore business suits and one looked as though he has never owned one. One described himself as a parachute candidate, one called himself a rejected baby boomer, one was ready for the job because he was a lawyer and had worked in the real world and one claimed to have been the local Liberal party for the last thirty-three years!

So what was the message that night: "It's great to be a Liberal!" This phrase uttered by at least two speakers summed it up. Although at one point it became obvious, by the groans emitted when a suggestion was made that a Fall election might happen, that the superiority complex that Federal Liberals once possessed is not as great as it was. A touch of humility is not all that bad for Liberals these days. The other message: the Canadian Alliance (Always referred to as the Reform/Alliance) has them spooked. Not scary spooked but annoyed spooked. This annoyance can be eradicated if only we can have an election where our ideas are going to kill their ideas (subliminal message detected during the evening). In fact one candidate went so far to quote "I am standing four square in front of the Alliance."

So what was really said by the candidates? Not being a stenographer I limited myself to jotting down the pithy comments and mantras that emerged. In the order of speaking here goes;

Robin Russell a thirty-five year veteran of bureaucracy in Ottawa: "We have good news to share, but what are we going to do tomorrow?", "Canadians feel we have found the balance". His platform had three planks: firstly "Banks are the enemy and the next MP must fight for small business operations." Secondly "The Alliance challenge and their policies: the flat tax, their support for two tier health care. The poor will have no power and no hope (Note some people think that the poor never possessed any power and had their hope taken away by the Liberals!) and the final threat - the use of referenda to eliminate minority rights." And lastly he spoke about the Northumberland issues: these revolved around the perennial problem of "jobs for our kids". He proposes reorganizing the student loan system and the need to revitalize small towns as the means to keep us down on the farm. "We need to create wealth, we need to be more productive because we have to pay for our social safety net, we need to direct Federal incentives to lure business". Speaking about the potential of growing hemp had the audience wondering if he had been smoking it when he tried to make the connection between hemp processing and the interiors of cars. "Growing hemp will revitalize our farming industry and auto parts production" leaving us all wondering how. His closing statement was "I have a vision where all of us can come back to Northumberland and get meaningful employment here. I am the parachute candidate here, I went away - but I'm back"

Businessman Stan Grizzle started off on the right foot with the crowd of the really faithful, "It's great being a Liberal!" Bringing greetings from the baby boomers, the MC had already brought greetings from Christine Stewart, he intoned a litany of woes that will befall them, the BBs, in the next inevitable recession because they are bereft of jobs, social security and unemployment insurance. "We must repair the damage of the last 10 years with the surplus of today" His closing remark was the best of all that night, "Nominate me and I will dedicate the next fifteen years of my life to you!"

Marty Halloran, the third speaker up first remark was "This is no speech just Marty's rambles" And it was, on and on about how he single-handedly revived the Liberal party in Northumberland. In a Clintonesque moment he introduced his wife "You get one, you get two" Regaling the crowd with war stories, as one listener remarked afterwards "If stepping on a dead dog in a ditch gets you elected I'll find one", and how he had put his time in and in his opinion that gave him the nomination. He first explained his interviewing technique, "Always ask the candidate not what they are going to do but what have you done?" He obviously thinks he has done plenty! "I wear my Liberalism on my sleeve" His closing remark summed it all up, "I have 130 volunteers working for me and 33 years of preparing to be your MP." The obvious question is will he pull a Doug Mann and take his volunteers home if he doesn't win?

The last speaker was an obviously nervous Paul Macklin ( one wag observed he hasn't been in the courtroom lately). Proudly proclaiming his local roots and the rote of the night ("What a great time to be a Liberal in Canada - do they exist outside of Canada?) he started by claiming membership in the "Liberal Party itself - the only party left standing, I stand four square in front of the Alliance." " I have a strong desire to work hard for you, NO, make that very hard for you." Stating "I have experience in the real world" he appeared to speak in code (teachers and policy wonks aren't part of the real world) and slam the other candidates. But he did lay out a local platform that related to Northumberland: one the government in Ottawa must respond to the problems at the local level, two, he would encourage a system of pro-activity from the constituency office ( I guess this means telling us what Ottawa can do for us instead of us having the wheedle it out of them), three, remove the Low-level Radioactive waste from Port Hope, four, stated that economic development must be encouraged in a unified riding manner, and five, help the natives achieve self-government. This last plank received the only applause of any mid-speech of any speaker. I was so taken aback by the applause on the last point I missed his closing remarks. Perhaps the five point plan was his closing remark!

All in all an interesting evening but I was surprised that few of the municipal candidates appeared. Joan Chalovich, Glen Quick and Jim Harrison were the only ones I recognized and a big no-show was Peter Delanty, perhaps he was out trying to find the local radio personality's house to give him a pamphlet. But seriously folks for an association that has signed 2300 members for a nomination fight and only get nearly one hundred at a cheap ($40.00) fundraiser maybe the Alliance will be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of an early election. However in what might be his political swan song the outgoing Riding President, John Lindsay did receive a nice tribute from the MC, some old pol from Ajax or Whitby (who had regaled us with a tribute to himself at the very first part of the meeting).