Seeing Red
I was raised in one of those died-in-the-wool political families. Liberal, in my case. And I don't know if people from non-political families realize this, but died-in-the-wool politics within a family is all consuming. It's pervasive. It's dominant. It's everything.
Combine that with a widowed mother and you get adult children who rebel by, by, by, spoiling their ballot instead of voting for David Peterson when they work for Bob Rae.
Because, yes, I worked for Bob Rae when he was Leader of the Third Party or Opposition (I can't remember which) and was on maternity leave when he won the Big Prize (at that time) and became the first NDP Premier of Ontario. I was happy for him, but a bit alarmed, too. I wanted to stay home with my baby and had been planning all along to hand in my resignation once my maternity leave was up. His win changed all that because I had to field calls from family and friends who said, "Get back there and hustle for an Executive Assistant gig!" when I knew that the (probably) $60,000 I'd be foregoing in not doing that would be worth it in the long family run.
Still, it was hard. It would have been a lot harder, though, had I known I'd be separated from my husband several years later and facing the same worry of Bob Rae winning the Liberal leadership and having to leave my ill-paying but flexible and easy job to do the hustle up on Parliament Hill. (I figured Bob Rae would have a hard time saying, "But aren't you an NDPer?")
I could pretend I feel a bit bad that he didn't win, but I don't. I guess I'm just not ambitious.
But back to politics. I was never much of an NDPer. I liked Bob Rae and my co-workers, but it's a hard thing to shake off a Liberal mother. Especially a Liberal WIDOWED mother. Probably not a day went by when we weren't expected to thank the Liberal Party of Canada for something or other. And we didn't need God because we had Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
It was like that, too. I'm not exaggerating even a bit. Sometimes I wonder if maybe my mother when she was a child had been in a near drowning incident and The Liberal Party of Canada happened by in a boat to save her. Or perhaps she had wandered off from her parents on the farm and was lost in the woods and The Liberal Party of Canada showed up in a Forest Ranger jeep and rescued her. Or maybe she was starving and penniless on a city street, having just graduated from Teacher's College, and The Liberal Party of Canada drove by and picked her up and took her to Headquarters for a hot meal before dropping her off at an elementary school that had a sign in the window, "Looking to hire a starving and penniless recent Teacher's College graduate who's just had a hot meal at The Liberal Party of Canada's Headquarters".
So watching the Liberal Leadership Convention on Saturday was fun - if a bit nerve-wracking (see above concern about Bob Rae possibly winning). But a little confusing for my kids - who think of me as an NDPer. A socialist. And a real free-thinker. Because there I was cheering on Stephane Dion like he's a good thing instead of Jack Layton's worst nightmare. My kids were like, "So, Mom? Will Jack Layton beat him?" And I was like, "Who?"
I really think they're very confused by the whole experience. And it's not that I'm any less socialist today than I was last week. It's just a happy thing for anybody who was raised in one of those died-in-the-wool polical families when the guy not backed by the Party Establishment wins the day. That's fun for people like me. It puts the Oomph back in that tired partisan game where winning the Big Prize is all that matters and Party Principles get put in the back seat. There was something akin to being a rebellious kid that had me enjoying Stephane Dion's win. It was like being eight years old and back in Sault Ste. Marie dumping the Trudeau flyers in the garbage instead of handing them out at the door and telling steelworkers who always voted NDP why they should vote Liberal instead.
I dunno. It was liberating. I won't vote for him - I've decided to commit to the NDP in hopes of the same renewal down the road of a great big fat backlash to great big fat Labour and the election of a grassroots Leader from the Prairies. Maybe even Alberta. Imagine a Calgary area rancher turned organic farmer heading up the New Democratic Party of Canada.
Ooh. Now THAT'S politically exciting. THAT'S a guy for whom I'd re-invent myself to do the Hustle on the Hill.
Anyway, whatever your politics, it's a good thing when the Anti-Establishment guy wins the Leadership of the party. There's nothing quite like knocking the Big Blue Machine off its game with the grassroots election of a big old thug like Mike Harris. Or spitting in the Old Conservative Party of Canada's eye with the election of a Christian Evangelical Zealot like Stephen Harper. And now - putting the boots to Power Corp AND Quebec nationalists and electing a French federalist poindexter pretty much unknown to the entire rest of the country as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
As former Prime Minister (aka, "The Old Monster") Jean Chretien said, "It's all about winning elections."
NOT! - old man.
It's all about the political grassroots electing the Party's leader.
Bottom's up.
