Monday, June 9, 2001
The Mighty Mordecai and Silly Stock - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- There has been much written on the life of Mordecai Richler. His death this past Tuesday was a sincere shock to all Canadians. He was truly a literary giant who towered over his contemporaries and made Canada better for it.
The Saturday National Post has always been a favourite read of mine. One of the reasons was its op-ed page. As one who admires the art of column writing, the three columnists on the op-ed page every Saturday typified both some great reading, as well as great deference to the art with the Mordecai Richler amongst the ‘terrific three’. The other two are Christie Blatchford -- who is biting, sarcastic and oh so good -- and David Frum, who vacated in February to work as one of George W. Bush’s advisers. (I joked at the time, that in terms of economics, the world was in safe hands.) With only Blatchford left, it’s a little depressing remembering a fine piece of newspaper real estate now history.
I grew up reading Jacob Two-Two Meets The Hooded Fang and I know in the next few years I’ll pick up The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz or his more political Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!. I haven’t read Solomon Gursky Was Here or St. Urbain’s Horseman or Barney’s Version, but from what I gather they were brilliant contemporary works that challenged the establishment and our perception of our collective societies. He was cantankerous, afraid of the mundane, but unafraid of getting everyone else’s knickers in a knot. Quebec separatists decried him, yet he could care less. If we could be so formidable in talent and reputation, we’d be cool. Mordecai Richler was one-of-a-kind and we’re very lucky to have lived in his time. He is sorely missed.
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As it stands we can get ready for the Liberals to govern forever, as the Canadian Alliance seem to be bungling more than Joe Clark’s jowls. The Canadian Alliance, Canada’s opposition party of which I was a member, is a total spent force and provide no more parliamentary purpose than to amuse the sarcastic scribes of the press gallery.
With a caucus that is deserting him regularly, it was with relief I heard that leader Stockwell Day has offered his resignation. It is with astonishment though that he covet certain ‘conditions’. As of late last night, he’s offered a leave of absence from the leadership, but asking for some sort of deal that sees the party president to resign; plus dictating the process to which his interim successor will be selected.
Stockwell Day is a true tragedy of the Canadian political scene. So much promise was invested in a man who looked to emulate Trudeau’s charm. Too bad it veiled a boob. I supported his leadership, but I regret the choice I made as it is obvious with 20/20 hindsight that he was Trudeau’s charm minus the all-too important intellect.
Should he leave? Well sure, the party he leads has a constitution that doesn’t force him to resign, but with so much dissension the party ranks, as well as on the grassroots level, it’s sad that he couldn’t take a hint. Stockwell Day isn’t even worthy of the praise for fronting such a tough front. You know it’s funny that one could say that since it’s a party so rooted in the old Reform party, that if you’ve lost Deb Grey, you’ve lost the fight; but isn’t it rather dangerous that you think of that in the first place?
Life isn’t fair and I think Stockwell Day believes it. He was elected one year ago with sixty-six plus percent, and after an opportunistically called election on Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s part, he could have done lot of things better than he did. Stockwell Day, for the good of the party and the survival of democracy in this country should step down and do so at the earliest moment.
Something has to happen to bring small-c conservatives together in this country, so as to form a credible opposition to the Liberals. Whether it’s the Tories coming to the Alliance or vice-versa or mixing up the Bloc Quebecois into the equation, something must be done and Stockwell Day’s resignation will be the impetus to start that arduous process. The last such effort, the United Alternative, spawned the Canadian Alliance. Obviously something went wrong. Looking at how long a failure took to materialise, a success looks even more daunting.
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I will be taking a prolonged hiatus to read, rest and recreate so I don’t plan on filing columns anytime soon. There is the vast archive of past columns for you to cull -- at www.topica.com/lists/thecommentary/read -- from now until the 23rd of July when I plan to be back.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .