November 23, 2000
The election thus far - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- As we wait for the federal election on 27 November 2000 to pass, (how I hate writing the date like that,) it’s clear come Tuesday morning we’ll have winners and we’ll have losers. Unlike our American friends, I can guarantee the only possibility that could happen, is the fact some questions will arise on who’ll form the Official Opposition. I think we could see a repeat of the 1993 election, when it took about a day or so to officially give the Bloc Quebecois, who had won 54 seats, the Official Opposition designation, while the Reform Party had 52. See, Reform, as polls closed in the West, saw their number increase and decrease throughout the night.
What seemed to be Jean Chrétien’s election to lose, still is. He will rally to victory; limping perhaps over the Business Development Bank scandal, something that is serious, yet curious in that it appeared so late in the campaign. The real politics aren’t who’ll form the next government. I think we can safely bet Jean Chrétien and his Liberals will hammer out a hair-raising, thin win. A majority government; yet a minority Liberal government is still possible. The real horse races are in individual seats, who’ll win, upset, lose and make history in the 301 ridings across the land.
Before that, allow me to indulge in a little lament over the performance of Stockwell Day and the Canadian Alliance. I won’t bother mentioning Jean Chrétien, as his performance has been abominable as usual. Stockwell Day, when he won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance looked to have the momentum needed to defeat Jean Chrétien. Day looked to be the conservative leader that Joe Clark will never be and Brian Mulroney never was. Day looked honest, fresh and even though he had hard-conservative values, we seemed to over look that in the boredom of Canadian summer politics. Day looked to have been comfortable in the House of Commons, yet in the campaign he seems limp, dry and without that charisma he seemed to reek of months prior. I guess in sheer desperation, one wishes style over substance, so as to resurrect a losing campaign. I guess, we were expecting Day to turn in an amazing performance in the debates, sadly Joe Clark bested him. Even Joe doesn’t believe it.
At the outset of the campaign, Day predicted that his Canadian Alliance could win up to 40 of the 103 Ontario seats that are earmarked to Ontario. At the time I snuffed it off as naiveté, and hoped he’d prove himself right. Sadly, he didn’t and now 40 looks awfully ambitious. The ill-prepared comments of Betty Granger, the Alliance candidate for Winnipeg, will resonate in Ontario. The stigma of the Alliance being the same bigoted Reform Party sticks.
I even doubt the Alliance retaining the only seat they have currently in Jim Jones’ Markham seat. They didn’t even win it in 1997, as Jones was elected a Tory and now seeks re-election under the Alliance banner. The Liberals have put up a star candidate in a former Royal Bank economist, John McCallum to face Jones and McCallum looks to win. He’s even been quoted here in BC! And should Paul Martin be out of the Finance portfolio, look for McCallum to take his knowledge into the halls of budget formulation.
There are a number of seats across the country I will watch in earnest election night. First, my riding of Vancouver-Kingsway. Will the Liberals’ Sophia Leung be re-elected or will someone else represent us in the Commons? This is the riding where attention has been focused on the number of Wong’s seeking elected office. The Alliance, NDP and Tory candidates all have the surname of Wong. Dr. Alice carries the Alliance banner, while the boat people defender Victor reassumes the NDP mantle he carried in ‘97. (Kanman is the Tory.) Now, I have serious reservations with Ms. Leung’s performance as MP. I have made my feelings known in this space before, but lemme just say I hope she loses. (Of the 301 MPs Canadians sent to Ottawa, guess who was voted the worst orator?)
The candidate running in Vancouver-Kingsway that would make a superb MP is Connie Fogal. I had the chance to hear Fogal speak when she came out to Langara recently and her fiery zeal is most resonant of her husband Harry Rankin. Both Fogal and Rankin were leading COPE/NDP supporters, but in the last number of years they’ve been supportive of the Canadian Action Party. Fogal is running as the Canadian Action party candidate and it’s a shame really. Her chances are slim and her party is a joke in itself. (Paul Hellyer, both a former Liberal and Tory leadership hopeful, is the Action leader.) I have thought of voting for Fogal, but I doubt it. I can only predict that Leung will retain her seat, seeing her competitors split their votes and she coming up the middle. For that, I am gravely disapointed..
The riding next door, Vancouver East sees the NDP’s Libby Davies, the incumbent, up against Mason Loh, a prominent in the Chinese community. Loh has been chastised for being an Alliance member and only switching to the Liberals weeks prior to the election call. At face value I categorically reject his opportunism, but some half-wits in East will vote for him. I think that’s sad that people not know of Loh’s indiscretions, and that Loh go on ever-so arrogantly.
In Vancouver Quadra, to Kingsway’s south-west, sees the Liberals parachute Stephen Owen into Dr. Ted McWhinney’s incumbent seat. Owen has had a distinguished career as a top civil servant in the NDP government in Victoria. Now he falls into the world of partisan politics and faces Kerry-Lynne Findlay of the Canadian Alliance. (For good measure, the Tories throw in the riding’s MP from the ‘70s Bill Clarke.) Findlay, a spokesperson for the Musequem lease holders, of which she is one, left the Liberals when the Feds refused assistance in their on-going dispute. Even though I castigate Mason Loh, I support Findlay, as she won her nomination fairly, whereas Owen was merely appointed to run in Quadra. This is a fight of the tallest order. I think Findlay should win, but some of idiots will still vote damned Liberal.
Now, one will ask why I am so negative against the Liberals. Simple, out in BC there is no point in electing Liberals. We get diddly-squat in terms of representation regardless of the amount of Liberals elected BC. A vote for the Liberals is a vote for arrogance and the bastardisation of the trappings of democracy. All Jean Chrétien’s doing.
When Elinor Caplan insulted the Alliance by claiming it was a party of bigots, holocaust-deniers and rasicts, it was there that my disgust of the Liberals and Jean Chrétien was reinforced. Chrétien went along with the remarks, which is damning in itself.
I hope to see as many Liberals turfed out of seats in BC, but I doubt it. People will still vote Liberal, because they are comforted by the status-quo. They are comforted by the height of incompetence and arrogance, those shall get their comeuppance when we’re immersed in the constipated governance of the Liberals.
I sincerely hope you keep in mind, exactly what is Canada could be. I hope you keep in mind the thought of how effective British Columbia could be in the greater scheme of national politics.
Regardless, do go out and vote this Monday, November the 27th.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .