Some of my best friends are...

Stockwell Day is the latest shining example of a persistent plague - the not-so-subtle racism that still underlies much of western populism

Commentary from Larry Solway

  This ought to get me kicked out of the club. I have to keep reminding myself that the root of the CCF were those indomitable western Baptist preachers.
  Sat around the other night with my son who is pretty acute about things political even though he works for the CBC and they're not supposed to express opinion publicly. He allowed that Stock Day is making a mess of things but suggested that Preston Manning was really a "decent sort of guy." We have ennobled this man simply because he looks pleasant. We have forgotten that at heart he is a right-wing evangelical Populist who sprang from the bigoted roots of Bible Bill Aberhart's Social Credit. And while I do not subscribe to the "sins of the fathers" maxim, I allow that the "acorn doesn't fall far from the tree." (Always fall back on easy aphorisms when all else fails.)
  So here goes. If you are a member of any minority group you tend to know your enemies almost at sight. Those designated enemies can cry "foul" or "you're just being paranoid", but we know you. I don't have time for the bully tactics of the Chretien government, but that doesn't stop me from feeling sympathy Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan when she went into no-win a pissing contest with the Alliance before the last election. Elinor's accusations about bigots and racists was met with scorn and anger by Alliance people, especially the irridentist South African Jew who was running against her. She whipped him, partly because her devoted don't stray, and partly because the heavily Jewish riding intuited that she was right.
  "We know who you are," echoes from every aggrieved minority. When the black community in Toronto insists that there is rampant racism among the cops - they know it. They don't have to prove it. When black kids are accosted at many times the rate for whites - they know it again. When the offence is DWB (look it up) they know it. When a reporter for a Toronto paper is harried by cops he knows it.
  Many years ago I bought a boat too large for the little club I was at. A friend invited me to join the bastion of Anglo primacy - Royal Canadian Yacht Club. It was, like many golf clubs, and others like the august Granite Club., a bastion of the Family Compact descendants and a place that had historically excluded anyone who wasn't part of their racial/religious persuasion.
  My friend assured me that "those things are ended," but I knew that the Old Guard was still there and still in charge. I sensed it when I entered their hallowed lobby during a regatta. It was palpable.
  Not overt enough for you? I remember, to my eternal regret, how just a few years ago I stood silently at a golf club near Picton where I had been invited to a Celebrity Tournament. The golf pro at one of Toronto's "exclusive" clubs had moved to Oakdale, a very expensive exclusively Jewish Club. The golf club he was leaving gave him a "hilarious" sendoff by mocking his departure to a Jewish Club. In the spirit of "guyism" they did bar-mitzvah, dialect, and prayer shawl sketches. It was disgusting. No one knew until Lorne Rubenstein, golf writer for the Globe and Mail did a scathing column attacking the entrenched and systemic racism of the old boys club. A few days after the article appeared a loud mouth at the Picton Club where I was waiting to tee off regaled assembled buddies with the story and opined that he never liked Jews anyway. I heard it all. I stood mute. I said nothing,. Score one for the bigots.
  Now to today. First of all - Stock Day has not only put his foot in it with that silly lawsuit and the huge legal bill paid by the Alberta Tories, not only has flip-flopped on the "secret agent" scandal not only has gone so far as to criticize a member of the Quebec Bench - but he has lacked the grace or acumen (or his advisors have missed the boat again) to say what he must. His first response was bravado . It should have bee something like: "There seems to be a substantial amount of unrest among many of my members. I do not take it lightly. I will not destroy the essential democracy of our party. We will talk. We will meet. We will discuss. I want to remain as leader and I want their support. If I have mis-spoken I am sorry."
  But to deal with my son's comment in the context of bigotry, racism, and the past: he said nothing in the Alliance Constitution suggests a racist policy. In spite of Day's statement that the Alliance is "inclusive," in spite of the insistence of many Jewish and South Asian members that they are evidence of the new face of Western Populism, I believe, with Elinor Caplan, that their people still include the old racists of the Social Credit Party, and that attitude underlies much of western Populism. Always has.
  There were racist outbursts during the campaign. However innocent they seemed to be, like the Winnipeg candidate who had to step down insisted they were, the fact is that like some disguised subplot, the undercurrent is there. Call me paranoid and over-sensitive - the two accusations traditionally made to deflect attention from the possibility that my accusation is true.
  As I said, if you are a member of a group that is often under siege - you sense tension. I know when I walk in a room or a restaurant, or a club that there are eyes on me questioning my right to be there, and if pushed hard, questioning my right to be.
  I can't deal with the systemic hate that is passed from parent to child. I can't deal with the western (and eastern) small town attitude that is suspicious of everything and everyone who looks, or smells, or talks or dresses differently.
  Trust me. Stock Day is still at war with an inner self that is homophobic, probably racist and like the New York Knick's Ward, a closet anti-Semite Ward told reporters that his best friend was a Jew. Day professes to have great friends among Jews. Yes - and some of my best friends are black.
  Don't take it to the bank.

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Posted: April 30, 2001

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