It was around midnight, some 39 years ago, when an old friend called to ask, quite casually, whether we could get together for a bite one evening. If memory serves, we conveniently found the very next evening would work, and so two young whippersnappers launched the seven-year Stephen Lewis era in Ontario politics.
For geriatrics and masters of historical arcana, this is seen as a kind of golden age for the Ontario NDP. Well, yes and no. The revered Stephen of today (even without a university degree) terrified a good part of Progressive Conservative Ontario in the 1970s, dooming us to less than 30 per cent of the vote. But that's of course a figure today's Ontario NDP - set to choose a new leader on March 7 - would kill for.
Stephen's hard-working but hapless successor, Mike Cassidy, soon gave way to Bob Rae's unfulfilling years as Opposition Leader. Mr. Rae was on the very brink of resigning before a perfect storm of flukes elevated him to the top of the greasy Ontario pole in the 1990 election. Once may have been too much.
It was Howard Hampton who took over the reins of a post-Rae party that had not only been unceremoniously turfed out of office but that was widely - and wildly unfairly - considered a laughingstock. Mr. Hampton did better than his reputation suggests, but not nearly as well as the party needed. After 13 years he left his party a mere rump in the Legislature and barely a factor in the life of the province (except when it shrewdly alienated 99 per cent of voters by stalling the end of the York University strike).
That's a shame, since that rump has been right on many urgent issues - above all the failure of Dalton McGuinty's government to deal seriously with the poverty agenda that had been so massively exacerbated in the long, wretched years under Mike Harris.
Mr. McGuinty got away with government passivity for one term, many citizens welcoming the respite after the Harris-created sturm und drang. That first term was blessed with good years for Ontario, but apparently not good enough for Mr. McGuinty to tackle seriously the desperate plight of so many unfortunate citizens. Now that the bad times are crushing us, there's apparently not enough money to support our most desperate, beyond fancy declarations of principle. Worse, it should now surely be self-evident that the economic meltdown is changing our lives and our society forever. Who can meet the challenges of the new Ontario?
Mr. McGuinty, who thrives on stability, has panicked in the face of adversity. John Tory is back, never to be underestimated despite everything. But he has little purchase over a caucus of mostly diehard neocons who, possibly alone in the universe, were cheering for John McCain. The NDP will not be trusted with office again for the foreseeable future, but it needs a leader who can grab attention for the tough issues. Who might that be?
I can't say the race has been inspiring, and I've spend much scarce time deleting oceans of unwanted emails and phone messages. But I'm probably not untypical of many weary party members. Here's what I see.
Gilles Bisson was in the caucus when I was briefly research and strategy director a decade ago and was very much an outsider. He hasn't exactly become a household name since, and I know little more about him now than I did then. I am assured he's grown in various ways, but for me he remains a remote figure.
The last time I encountered Michael Prue, he offended me deeply. But my lasting view of him was cemented when he wrote a provocative opinion piece calling for the party to reopen the separate school question — as daffy a piece of advice as could be conceived — and then failed to say which side he was on. Pure attention-grabbing opportunism, so far as I was concerned, and a strategic suicide bomb.
That brings us to Peter Tabuns - a competent, pleasant man with a wealth of knowledge about the environment, one of the great issues of our era. He'd be my choice, except…
There's Andrea Horvath - a new face, a young face, a Hamilton face. A woman. Community-based.
Friends I respect who are closer to the scene are split between the Mr. Tabuns and Ms. Horvath. Each side thinks its candidate is more likely to grow, and maybe one is capable of finding the royal jelly.
For the sake of my dimming party and our troubled province, let's hope that candidate is the winner.
Gerald Caplan is a former national campaign director for the NDP.
Special to The Globe and Mail
