A bully pulpit is an expression coined by American President Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the 20th Century. It referred to the American White House being the best place in America from which to speak and affect change. Babel can also be a bully pulpit. Babel is the best platform in Ontario from which to speak and affect change for Ontario and for Canada.
Despite Toronto being the provincial capital, it lacks the identification Babel possesses as a microcosm of the province in its transition from an agrarian-industrial society into the global drifts of the information age. Toronto is already building Ontario’s future while Babel struggles with ties to the province’s past.
Babel is still white bread, slow to recognize the growing pockets of its multicultural future. This tardiness in recognizing the future helps Babel have the makings of a bully pulpit.
In the words of the Centennial Song for Ontari-ario, Babel is a place to stand and a place to grow. It is a place for ideas and yet with an ingrained past that makes it a rigorous testing ground for change. It can see the future. It can see a different Ontario. That does not mean Babel necessarily likes it.
When the Charlottetown Accord was supported by Conservatives, Liberals and NDP alike in October 1992, Babel rejected it. When Toronto said ‘yes,’ Babel and the rest of Ontario said ‘no,’ it added up to a 51 per cent to 49 per cent defeat. The accord proposed a Canada that Babel’s past could not accept.
Babel remains as contrary today. Its elected politicians define the contrariness. The city votes in defiance, not in favour. Babel voted against two previous mayors last year to opt for change. It was considered a safe change.
Babel has been seen as a bellwether riding by the federal and provincial political parties since the aberration of choosing the first Reform candidate in Ontario in 1993. This year, it voted solidly for the Conservative’s federal leadership and sent a nebbish back to Ottawa. The Babel riding will help choose an Ontario government later this year and, at this stage, it looks like a three-way race.
But to become the bully pulpit it has the potential to be, Babel needs leadership. It needs to be collected and motivated. It needs to take a stand. It needs the idea. Babel and its citizens could move mountains.
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