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Welcome to Tony's Rockin' Shindig!

Snap-snap-snap-snap-snap-snap-snap-snap.

Those snapping fingers belong to the President of the Treasury Board, as well as to the two paid employees of 88.7 FM and any volunteer who happens to drop in to the front-room studio of Hunters Bay Radio.

Tony Clement, federal minister of a string of portfolios and, so far, three-time Member of Parliament for Parry Sound-Muskoka, is also a punk, as in rocker, and serves as once-a-month, unpaid DJ at this community radio station in the heart of Ontario's cottage country.

Here, he does his own snapping. He also selects the music – punk rock and new wave his personal specialties – and, from a black notebook of scribbled jottings, delivers a patter of impressive knowledge on the likes of Van Halen and AC/DC.

"He wouldn't be here if it weren't legit," says Jeff Carter, the little station's managing director. "He was in here one day for an interview and we said, 'We're looking for DJs – would you like a tryout?'" For the past 18 months, he's been a regular.

Four years ago, when Mr. Clement turned 50, he bought a guitar and turned to YouTube to teach himself how to play. "You try getting an instructor to come and teach at 1 a.m.," he says. "That's when I've finally got some time to myself."

This warm Saturday afternoon, after attending four weekend events, after knocking on more than 200 doors in nearby Bracebridge, he has picked up his newest treasure, an electric six-string Epiphone, and is already working through the chords of his favourites.

The song that means most to him, he says, is Subdivisions, by the Canadian band Rush, and the lyrics could well have been written with Tony Clement in mind:

In the high school halls

In the shopping malls

Conform or be cast out

(Subdivisions)

In the basement bars

In the backs of cars

Be cool or be cast out

Any escape might help to smooth the unattractive truth

But the suburbs have no charms to soothe the restless dreams of youth.

He was born in England but raised in Toronto. His parents separated when he was still a child, his last name changing from Panayi to Clement when his mother remarried. Being slight and nearsighted, but highly intelligent, he quickly understood – as so many others have – that there is a certain truth to "Be cool or be cast out." He became encyclopedic when it came to rock music. He had all the right albums. When he got to the University of Toronto, it was his music they played at the college pub. And since he owned the records, he successfully argued, he should be the one spinning them. He was cool, sort of.

Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill had trouble finding electoral success, but both would be impressed by Tony Clement's persistence. He ran, unsuccessfully, for Toronto council. He ran for the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership and lost. He ran for the leadership of the federal Conservatives, and lost – this time to Stephen Harper. He ran for Mr. Harper's new party in 2004 in Brampton West, and lost.

There were, of course, victories along the way, but none quite so remarkable as his 2006 triumph in this cottage-country riding. They don't warm to outsiders here, and who could be more outside than a nerdy city politician?

This is a riding, after all, that was held for years by Stan Darling, renowned for his fall-fair folksiness and eccentricities. Stan once ran over a baby moose when he was driving back to his riding. Told by the garage that towed him in that the car was okay but the stench unbearable, Stan simply grabbed a couple of pine tree scents, placed one in each nostril and carried on.

Mr. Clement lucked in, however. He had convenient ties to a family cottage. The popular Liberal incumbent, Andy Mitchell, had the gun registry and sponsorship scandal pulling him down and, on election day 2006, "Landslide" Tony took the riding by 28 votes.

Those who claimed he would never be seen again have discovered, after nine years, that he is as ubiquitous as Stan Darling ever was. He shows up everywhere, often in appropriate garb, though he recently drew the line at a farm machinery show.

"Me trying to look like a farmer," he says with a self-deprecating lift of the eyebrows, "I don't think it works."

What does work for him is social media. While other ministers shun it or else have staff handle it, @TonyclementCPC is more like a high-schooler than a ranking policy-maker, sending out more than 17,000 tweets on everything from cute pets to the Tragically Hip – as well, of course, as tweets on events attended and policies announced. His prolific use of his mobile and camera has gained him more than 52,000 followers.

In a government that considers a short leash to be generous, Mr. Clement has become virtually the last strong minister standing, as Mr. Harper's cabinet has lost or is losing the likes of Jim Prentice, Jim Flaherty, John Baird, Peter MacKay and James Moore.

"Still here after all these years," he says. "Twenty years in politics and still standing. Look, we've got a lot of great people still in cabinet and on the back benches, I want to make that point clear. But yeah, it's 20 years in politics and still going and feel great, feel energized…. I feel more relaxed than I did 20 years ago and more comfortable in my own skin."

Local politicians jokingly call him "Uncle Tony" in reference to the initiative he is best known for – the Legacy Fund that pumped $50-million into the riding as it prepared to host the 2010 G8 Summit.

It is a story that should be on political science courses, perceived as scandalous by the national media, seen by most locals as "finally getting something of our own back."

"People show up and actually want to see the $50-million gazebo," says Mr. Clement, referring to the small park and public toilets in the village of Baysville that became the focal point of so much negative media coverage. "But the people who live here loved it."

The people who live here do not necessarily love what they have seen in Ottawa, however, and the Oct. 19 election is now but three months away. Mr. Clement has his detractors, as does any Member of Parliament, but federal elections tend to be far more national than local. The Senate scandal is an obvious issue, though Mr. Clement says his weekend door-knocking finds a lot more talk about leadership. He says he sticks to a favourite political saying – "Run scared or run stupid."

"So I never take it for granted," he says. "I am always out there and making sure people have access to me, making sure I understand where they are coming from on national issues. They have shown increased faith in me in subsequent elections. People say to me, 'Are you worried?' I say, 'I'm always worried.' I'm always trying to be the best MP I can be."

When the actual election is on, Tony's Rockin' Shindig will be temporarily suspended to avoid any suggestion that the sitting member was given two hours of free air time.

"Hopefully," he says, "I'll be back in October – both places. Otherwise, I could do a daily show."

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