Listening to the candidates for the leadership of the liberal party is not doing much to promote liberalism. You get the impression that Ted Hsu MPP is the only one enthusiastic for a liberal government in Ontario. Bonnie Crombie might be the front-runner yet her ‘Big Tent’ approach might be more practical than liberal. Yasir Naqvi reminds me of the support the liberals always got from the more recent Canadians because it was liberals who always supported newcomers. Nate Erskine-Smith MP is probably the one who best understands liberalism.
But we will miss Adil Shamji as he was the candidate who best looked up to liberalism for the benefits to our citizens. Maybe one of the key questions for the remaining debates in the leadership contest is to question the candidates on their liberalism.
We could probably count on Ted Hsu for the intellectual answer to the question. He is the candidate most likely to recognize the freedom and democratic benefits of liberalism. He obviously sees liberalism as less demanding on the individual.
While Yasir Naqvi MP is obviously the most dedicated to liberalism, his is a more visceral liberalism. He sees it as not only standing for human rights over other political parties but core to the democracy in our Canadian society.
Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie’s approach to liberalism is similar to my late friend Hazel McCallion. Hazel always took a somewhat conservative approach to running Mississauga. It helped her get the job done. She would have had a laugh when Ontario premier Doug Ford dreamed up his ‘strong mayor’ policy. She would never have needed Doug Ford’s support for anything she felt she needed to get done. The only thing she could not get done was to convince me to move to Mississauga. I was too loyal to my liberal roots in Toronto.
I think Nate Erskine-Smith’s approach to liberalism would be the most complex. He comes from the more gentrified part of Toronto’s east end. Based on his time in England, he probably has a more complicated story to tell about the origins of his liberalism. His reputation as a maverick member of parliament also is the question.
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