LITTLE CHOICE LEFT, RIGHT, CENTRE, AS GREEN POLLS HAVE PARTY POISED FOR STUNNING UPSET OF CONSERVATIVES
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — Elections, fairly, are a referendum on government leaders and their record; and too often less about the next four years in Ontario’s case — despite political promises.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote Spanish philosopher George Santayana in 1905.
Lest we forget!
How can we with so many dead — and alive — in a hopefully waning pandemic?
Remember 2018? Are you better off as promised by Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives?
Affordability, health care and climate change remain concerns albeit in different order:
— Parry Sound-Muskoka’s median household income labours shamefully at $63,813 — $10,000 below the provincial average of $74,287. Small businesses are left wanting to hire skilled employees, while some workers looking for fair living wages toil with hands out. Both are at a loss.
— Hospital and medical workers in clinics, LTCs and mental health fields are doing their best with insufficient and ineffectively proportioned government funding to keep up with the growing and aging demands of worried parents, grandparents and single seniors.
— In a region where the green dream is fostered by a forest of lakes and trees and attuning tree-hugging environmentalists, the climate — political and popularly — is tepid at best even with CAM’s laudable and loud weekly demonstrations.
Who then best to address local angsts?
Well, unless you’re too young to get a vaccine, Doug Ford and the PCs don’t need anyone telling you what they’ve done and undone.
But suffice it to say that their candidate “Mayor Graydon Smith” has a reputation as being a fighter for hospitals, a strong advocate for the Heart of Muskoka. Even former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne said she liked him after working with him through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
Smith has long coveted the Progressive Conservative nomination — so speaks to his political beliefs in friend Ford and his government policies and what they stand for. And he can be counted on to dutifully read the Tory teleprompter as he did last year in a test while announcing millions in provincial funding for Bracebridge’s new MUCC arena/community centre.
But the party’s heir apparent to retiring MPP Norm Miller faces a stubborn challenger in the Greens’ Matt Richter, who reasonably believes he can stun Smith in an upset — as do some polls including mostly his party’s. He’d have to jump from a 20 per cent share in 2018, which he feels is actually possible from what he’s hearing at the door.
He says people want change.
No neophyte contender, the five-time runner is persistently pursuing a seat next to Mike Schreiner as the leader’s Kato following Saturday’s super rally day across the riding.
A schooled campaigner, the teacher is kind, considerate, polite, conscientious and well-intended. A nice guy — not unlike Miller Richter admits himself.
But in a bottom-feeding riding is another Miller lite-lite our future 20 years hence in a critical cut and thrust arena like Queen’s Park?
Richter thinks civil discourse will win over a blunt force majority among previous populous voters.
Maybe some day if more un-Americans like him are elected June 2.
Greens — like it or not — are perceived as a one-track party not unlike New Democrats the original people’s party. They can only hope Ontarians are colour blind enough to double their seat count by inching the province to fast-forward planetary sustainability.
As for the NDP — always knocking on the door save for Bob Rae and Dan Waters almost three decades ago — orange is not the New Blue or even the old Blue.
The Official Opposition party has done considerable good and could still as No. 2 in Toronto. They can be counted on to advocate with success on the health front with hospitals and most importantly in the vital LTC fight sure to come.
However, they’ve squandered their leads in the past. Their candidate Erin Horvath had a shot last election and like Richter couldn’t unseat Miller. Until a month ago few at large had heard again of her outside Huntsville. Her gut instincts may be right, but are they right constituents who need a total champion and not a representative runner-up.
That brings us back to the Liberals, talking about wasting opportunities. Who are these people? Are they really the grass roots or head office?
They’ve been out of office since Ken Black replaced premier Frank Miller’s 1971-’87 rein. (Waters was the next member of Provincial Parliament 1990-’95. Tories have ruled since the Parry Sound and Muskoka riding merged after 1999.)
Like most parties the Liberals ramped up for this scheduled election too late. They gave up even when Norm Miller called it quits, conceding to the Conservatives.
Unlike the Greens who didn’t and are arguably on the cusp of another post-Miller.2 political horizon.
So what are Liberal voters to do? Park their vote till 2026 and hope the lumbering Liberals can get their act together again?
Or vote with their conscience — long a political ideal that too often gets blurred by what’s best for the riding or the province — or who the polls say will prevail and stick with the winner if you hope to benefit from the most ballots of your colour stuffed in the box?
Or vote for the leader and not the candidate. Or vote for yourself?
Ask if Smith, Richter or Horvath really believe, demonstrate and reflect what you believe. Then truly listen and watch their body language.
Parry Sound-Muskokans should first consider before voting who they themselves are and want to be.
What drives them? Is it their cars and trucks or where and how high — and hot or cold — they want live? And in what kind of communities do they want their families and kids to live? For richer or poorer?
Can we have the best of urban, suburban and rural life without threatening our health, our livelihood or our personal enjoyment? Yes!
Middle class and middle age residents who drive and derive the most from the economy — thus contributing most to the refundable tax base — are in a quandary. Their hearts may be green, but their bank accounts are red.
COVID has shown it’s possible to do both if you’re as careful and concerned as you profess. If you expect governments to be financially prudent with your money, demonstrate fiscal restraint with your loonies, twonies, mortgage and vehicle payments.
Give charitably if you can. Reap what you sow.
Another positive from the pandemic — if there is such a thing — is a political wakening and awareness by more voters young and old who have and must become more engaged in the representation and collaborative socialist running of their lives.
Social engagement is now a given for all who X or check the ‘O’ beginning with those doing it for their first or last time.
But back to our original premise. The best government will be the one best equipped to deal with the unknown the next four years. Who knew the coronavirus would alter our lives?
Vote for a party with candidates capable of putting politics aside when needed while sticking true to core values in times of crisis.
And having a global view that is more concentrated, inclusive and progressively visionary for all incomes, races and genders.
One that offers promise for young, old and those in between without enriching friends at the expense of the disenfranchised.
Candidates and parties with fresh ideas that create living conditions that aren’t based on existing ways we’ve outgrown and keep Ontario’s excellence from the emerging brain drain exodus and continue to be inviting to immigrants who improve our life and theirs.
All the parties today can’t hope to live up to their promises. And none of them will without your support.
So don’t despair. You can vote for whoever you want in this riding — unless you’re a Liberal because they don’t have a horse in this race.
The choices are slim left, right and centre.
But you should vote — like it or not.
It’s your call Thursday.
Good luck, we don’t envy you.
EMAIL: news@muskokatoday.com
28 years of ‘Local Online Journalism’
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