That settled it in Babel. We had our traditional all-candidates meeting at City Hall and the Whig candidate walked away with it. There was no contest. We can go and vote today and we will. There is no need for more campaigning in Babel. Sure, we will watch the party leaders’ debate on television next week but that is to see which leader wins.
Just watching the gradual gathering of the contestants here in Babel told the story. The Freedom Party candidate was first in his place. He is young and knew no better. He admitted when his party had no policy on an issue—which was often. He is a political science student and by this time next year he will probably be something else having come to understand the conundrums his funny right-wing party presents.
The Green guy sat himself down early and bored everyone over the next two hours. It was a test of our commitment to democracy that we suffered through the often inane comments of the fringe candidates.
The funniest of the fringe was the Libertarian who seems to have absolutely no concept of what Libertarianism means. There was the occasional laugh and a couple times, two people actually started to applaud him.
The NDP candidate surprised us. The lady was not on her top form. She rambled a bit in her answers. She was not always clear in what she was saying but that seemed to suit some of the quite unclear questions and the vagueness of some of the NDP platform.
The Conservative candidate was brought into the council chambers by three ladies of his cheering claque. Having lost his seat as a councillor in last fall’s municipal election, he did not seem as familiar with the locale. His opening went well but his subsequent claim that his party leader, Tim Hudak, did not say he would not honour the uploading of provincial costs from municipalities beyond the billion dollars already uploaded by the Liberal government was met by some derision. It also got him into a shouting match with the Whig candidate. While the dozen or so members of his cheering section tried to cover up his gaffe, he came out of the argument looking foolish because of his attempt at what many in the hall knew was a blatant lie.
The Whig arrived in style, briefing book under his arm, reading glasses perched on top of his closely cropped hair. He did a victory lap around the hall, glad handing as he went. His bonhomie was a bit forced but he did show warmth in welcoming two youngsters who were obviously his grandsons. He made a point of showing good humour by extended familiarities in saying hello to each of the other candidates who were already seated, ready to proceed. The Whig made good use of his professionally prepared briefing book throughout his presentations but when he got away from it, he used far more “I’s” than “we’s.” He makes much of his service background in the military police but the campaign medals he brags of are what are known as “I was there” ribbons. It is fair game to mention them; he just needs to be more humble about them.
He needs to spend some time on the back benches at Queen’s Park to find out what politics is really about. He has too easy a win here in Babel.
-30-
Copyright 2011 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]