NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: Tom Long comes out

CCRAP candidate reluctantly leaves the backroom for the limelight of a leadership campaign

By: Don Wright

  April 28/00 - As speculation surrounding a Canadian Alliance leadership bid mounted this week, senior spokespersons close to newly declared candidate, Tom Long, admitted that Long had to be persuaded to change direction and come out of the back room and into the sun.
  Long aspires to the party leadership as a step to winning the federal election and becoming Prime Minister of Canada.
  Long has been seen in public only twice since 1995. Spokespersons stated that his original plan was to win the leadership and form a federal Alliance government while closeted within the security of his backroom office.
 

By declaring his candidacy, Long is emerging from the darkness of the backroom into the sunlight

  It was revealed that although Long had enjoyed his role in writing strategies to bash welfare recipients, single moms, teachers, nurses, squeegee kids and big unions, he had run out of challenges in Ontario.
  The federal stage, however, would offer him an opportunity to take on federal civil servants, soldiers, railway workers, aboriginal people and seniors.
  Long had felt confident that this could be done from his backroom. He has believed for some time that when political leaders speak in public, they dig themselves into trouble. He cited Preston Manning on immigration, gays and Quebec as examples. He argued that Jean Chretien was a disaster in the Middle East.
  Long, unable to speak French because of a lifelong ideological disability, prefers to issue French press releases than attempt to speak the language. Observers in Quebec argued that this would be a nice break from listening to the French of Preston Manning or Stockwell Day.
  The beginning of the Long dash, following ten years of silence, marks high noon in Alberta.

Don Wright is a retired teacher living in London, and writes occasional features for the dailies.

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