Commentary from Larry Solway
Irritation comes naturally to me; in fact, I used to be well paid just to be irritated, angry, testy, sometimes controversial, often obnoxious. My own family tells me not to keep getting so upset. But I do. And I am. This election season is particularly bad - there is a lot to irritate. And it's not always "big" issues, either.
Irritation 1: "The election doesn't speak to my needs."
The so-called "kids" (actually the 20-somethings) complaining that the election doesn't speak to their needs. What needs? They are self-absorbed narcissists wrapped up in their petty aspirations like getting the best-looking babe (or guy) or buying a pick up truck or finding out for tonight "where it's at." They live for tonight and care little about tomorrow and know even less about yesterday. They choose not to be part of the process. The irritation is that they blame us for not "speaking to their needs."
Politicians scramble every time some angry post-gen-Xer quibbles that politics are irrelevant to their needs. In the Bush-Gore TV borefest, both candidates muttered sanctimonious drivel when asked how they would appeal to younger voters. I'm getting tired of it.
They're not all like that, of course. There are thousands of that group who are already part of the process, however imperfect, and they are a powerful voice. There are youth organizations in every party, often even more zealous - not to mention energetic - than their elders.
But for the most part, young voters want the issues to come to them. The spoiled MTV/MUCH Music generation wants to blame politicians for their lack of interest. Many are still of the age of post-juvenile narcissism characterized by the "I am Canadian" commercial. A beer commercial for heaven's sake!
Recently I was sitting in a waiting room with three of my contemporaries. In walked a young guy, maybe 20, blonde, sharp-featured, good-looking. I exclaimed: "My God - It's Stockwell Day." The young man's response: "Who's he?" One of my colleagues gently tells him: "The leader of the Alliance." Oh yeah - I think I've seen him on TV!" Hopeless.
I say, let them eat Pizza.
Not surprisingly, youth employment researcher Sandra Tam has a different view. Read what she has to say and then tell us your opinion: Do you think Larry knows what he's talking about or should he take Prozac?
Irritation 2. Minority candidates for C.A.
Irritation is not a strong enough word for my horror and dismay at the number of minority Alliance candidates. The Alliance may declare themselves a party of inclusion but many of them have their roots in Western Populism, another word for Evangelical, bigoted, Social Credit. For those who forget, that party was the great racist and anti-Semitic scourge of this country, and the old guard bigots are still part of that process. So how, for example, can someone named Dorfman in North York or South Asians like the three hopefuls who duked it out in Brampton for the Alliance attach themselves to a bunch of middle class white men who still belong to Golf and Country Clubs who didn't used to (and maybe still won't) admit you, or trembled at the thought that you might move in next door to them, or worse still, try to date their daughters.
Irritation 3. Jews for C.A.
To maintain some ethnic balance I react with shame as a Jew to the response to the government support of the U.N. resolution condemning Israel for using excessive force against the Palestinians. It's single issue politics at its worst. Even ultra-Orthodox Jews, who rarely take part in anything secular like voting are voting against the Liberals. So Elinor Caplan is running for her life in Thornhill, a very Jewish riding. There are enough reasons to vote against the Liberals without bringing up a narrow irrelevant parochial issue. Vote against the Liberals for failing to live up to their "No child poverty by the year 2000" promise. Or for crippling health care, or for their failure to create a national housing program. But for heaven's sake - don't vote against them about Israel while you vote for the pandering promise of Stock Day to provide tax credits for people who support parochial schools. In Caplan's riding, the Alliance is optimistic that the U.N. issue is a win for them.
Jeffrey Dorfman is the Canadian Alliance candidate for York Centre in Toronto. Check out his response to Larry's Irritations #2 and #3.
Irritation 4. The two-horse race
In spite of the rise of Alexa and Joe in the debates, the country still behaves as if the election is a two horse race with the crafty, hypocritical, stealthy and sometimes fraudulent Jean Chretien trying to promise his way into another term against the power of darkness led by the one-time evangelical school head Stockwell (homosexuality is an aberration) Day. The fuss over the debate has dissolved and people are back to the realities of electioneering.
Did it matter that Alexa had her defining moments in the debate?. She said that Chretien had beaten the deficit but had created a deficit in Health Care, The Environment, Child Care, Education. It was as good as she gets. But it wasn't enough. The NDP, especially in Ontario and British Columbia, where governments ran up huge deficits during the worst economic downturn since the 30's, is still remembered - and not very fondly - for Bob Rae and Glen Clark.
Straight Goods asked pollsters Marc Zwelling and Jim Matsui about how polls work and whether polls become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Irritation 5. Malaise on the Left
I'm more saddened than irritated that the only message coming from anywhere left of centre has been muted and ineffective.
My sadness is that my friends in the NDP have always been identified as the party of the downtrodden, the abused, the underdog, the single mother, the welfare case, the homeless. Of course they are. But their message has failed to resonate with "hard-working families" who are neither homeless nor desperate, has failed to be heard by rank-and-file union members, has missed the heart of the intellectual and professional community. But these people are still with the NDP in spirit because they want it to continue to be, as it has been for generations, the conscience of the country. The NDP remains the pioneer of Medicare, of Unemployment Insurance, and pension fairness. So I get irritated when well-meaning supporters send in financial contributions but vote "strategically" for Liberals.
Straight Goods asked Toronto Star columnist Michele Landsberg for her take on this recurrent issue.
Irritation 6: Narrow Self-Interest of Voters
I've said it before, I'll say it again: while voters declare their concerns for social issues they vote on what's-in-it-for-me.
Health Care is more than emergency rooms and hospital care and long waits for CAT scans. We should be telling people that their parents are being put in grave danger. The growth of for-profit homes for the elderly is making life impossible for people on pensions and even worse for their families. Privatized "competitive" home care is killing home care. There is no money for retirement, for chronic care, for nursing homes where the only illness is advanced age. The waiting list times run as long as two years. But if you're well-heeled you can pay $4000 a month to put mom into a safe, secure, medically supervised environment.
Irritation 7: Trendy causes and scapegoating
We have found a convenient demon in Ontario: The King's Health Centre. Party stalwarts led by Shirley Douglas and Frances Lankin are outraged because it looks like Ontario Health Care has been compromised by a gang of thieves. In fact, the Centre is what many people tout as one way out of the Health Care dilemma: group practice. It is no more "private health care" than an independent doctor living on OHIP remittances is "private." The Kovals, alleged to have absconded with more than $100 million may have taken only about $3 million from the Health Centre.
We can't turn the scandal into an example of the damage that can be done by a two-tired system. Yes, what we haven't been saying - and it irritates me - is that for all the money the Liberals are putting into Health Care (still not enough to replace what they took out) they refuse to take responsibility for how the money is spent. They refuse even to dabble in the notion of creating Community Health Services to provide primary care, services that would be staffed by doctors, nurses, therapists and other care-givers all on salary.
As you can imagine, the NDP's Frances Lankin did not agree with Larry.
Irritation 8: Inaction and lack of fresh thinking on housing crisis
The Liberals have backed out of so many things: child care and in-home health care AND housing. But we miss the point by continuing to harp on "affordable" housing. We should push for restoring federal support for rental housing, a market that was killed deader than a dodo, not by rent controls, but by the rush to build quick-profit condominiums. The problem is not only a failure to house the desperate and the downtrodden, it is the shrinking supply of rental housing for young families, for singles, for empty-nesters, for "hard-working Canadian families."
Only government can invest in the future of every tenant at every income level. Only government can guarantee a supply of rental housing to keep tenants from being boxed in by short supply and higher rents. The sad truth is that thousands of condo are units owned by people who have bought them to rent out at sometimes scandalous rents.
David Foster (not THAT David Foster) is an Ottawa housing consultant and Straight Goods reader who thinks Larry has it all wrong here.
Irritation 9: the &#*@!)$%*ing GST
Finally, I am continuing to be irritated, enraged at times, by everyone's failure to reduce and finally eliminate the GST. Only Alexa has said she would do it. But not loudly enough, lest she be perceived as a tax-cutter. The Goods and Services Tax is inherently democratic because it falls equally on the rich and the poor. It falls equally on the guy who has to shell out an extra 7% to buy a BMW and the young family that has to buy furniture and clothing. Abolishing the GST might mean a huge tax loss, but no one wants to make the top 5% pay a little more income tax. Who will bell that cat? Is it only Alexa?
My irritation may not change many minds. It may not speak ringingly to all the needs of the community. It may not capture many hearts and souls. But I have to irritate to think.
You've heard what bugs Larry Solway. Now we'd like to hear from you:
- What irritates you about this election?
- What do you see happening in your riding in this campaign? Does any of it make sense?
- Have western Canadians all turned into right-wingers overnight, or is the western base of CA a kind of mirror reflection of the BQ in Quebec? What's become of national Canadian politics? Was this ever a reality?
- Some, like Larry Solway, say youth are less involved politically than in the past. Is this correct in your experience? Are any generations as involved as in the past? How are the Boomers doing, for that matter?
- What are you most sick of hearing about in this election campaign? What do you wish you would hear even a little about?
[ Front Page ]
