Viewpoint: Take off the green beer goggles before voting

By Todd Ross –

March 17 is usually a day associated with Ireland and green beer—but for the residents of the federal riding of Toronto Centre, this St. Patrick’s Day is a day for serious decision-making.

Calling the by-election on St Patrick’s Day is arguably one of the “Greenest” moves made by the Harper government. It’s also the longest by-election in recent history: Harper called the election in December 2007.

After an unusually long campaign (the norm is 30 days), the front-runner is Liberal Bob Rae. The other three serious candidates are all accomplished but their resumes cannot stand up to the Honourable Robert Keith (Bob) Rae, P.C., O.C., O.Ont., Q.C., B.A., B.Ph., LL.B.

Almost everyone remembers Rae from his time at Queen’s Park. Some even remember him as the young MP from Broadview–Greenwood. Since then, he has chaired of the board of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Conservatory of Music and is credited with the revamping both organizations. Internationally, he has worked in Sri Lanka, Sudan and Iraq. In Canada, he headed the Air India inquiry and the McGuinty government commissioned him to report on post-secondary education in Ontario, resulting in the Rae Report and $6.2 billion in new investments to the file. He is currently the Liberal foreign affairs critic and the co-chair of the Liberal policy platform committee.

How do the lesser-known candidates stack up?

The Conservatives have had a hard time with Toronto Centre. Mark Warner was ousted by the central party for not following the party line: he was too urban and too progressive for the party’s liking so he was dropped. Don Meredith was selected to replace Warner: a Pentecostal minister from Richmond Hill and chair of the GTA Faith Alliance, Meredith seems to be more cautious about his policies. His website offers standard party-issued “key issues” for Toronto Centre—which happen to be the same “key issues” for the by-election in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River, a riding that covers the entire northern half of Saskatchewan.

I wonder if the question of perma-frost has come up at any of the Toronto Centre all candidate debates?

The New Democrat Party has selected El-Farouk Khaki as the replacement for the experienced housing and anti-poverty activist Michael Shapcott. Khaki is an accomplished immigration lawyer whose work is well known in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood. The odd thing about Khaki is that he served as a political staff person in the Rae government—he doesn’t like to talk about it much and I couldn’t find any mention of it on his website.

Green Party candidate Chris Tindal ran in the 2006 election and is back for another kick at the can. By day he is an interactive media producer: I’m not quite sure what that is, but it sounds impressive. He’s a humourous guy who is quicker to make a joke than to describe policy. Tindal’s opportunity in this by-election is to try for the third place prize ahead of the Conservatives. With the date being on St. Patrick’s Day, he may even get a few votes from voters wearing “Green” beer goggles.

As with any by-election—and with the additional distraction of St Patrick’s Day—the challenge will be to get people out to vote. Don’t be surprised if you’re dragged from your favourite Irish pub to your local polling site. Dedicated revelers can make room in their schedule by voting at one of the advance polls on March 7, 8 or 10 from noon to 8 p.m. at the St. Lawrence Market North (92 Front St. E.) or at St Michael’s School (50 George St. S.). Early birds can vote now by going to the returning office at 519 Jarvis St. (northeast corner of Jarvis and Wellesley).

Todd Ross is a government relations consultant at Connect Consulting Solutions. He can be reached at toddr@ccsolutionsgr.com.