Politics is not for the faint of heart or thin of skin. It's an odd, tough business, where the nice often finish last and, far too commonly, the nasty wind up first. Fairness, and $3.42, will get you little more than an HST-laced latte at Starbucks.
All of which is a bit of context for the alleged plight of NDP Leader Carole James, who is facing a mini-leadership kerfuffle, despite having her party well ahead of the governing Liberals in poll after poll.
Ms. James felt threatened enough to boot Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson out of the NDP caucus on his duff for persistent, veiled criticisms of her leadership.
Although there are no serious challengers in sight, Ms. James can hardly have welcomed the publicity over Mr. Simpson's turfing.
She knows as well as anyone, after seven years at the helm, that few voters will confuse her with a political firecracker.
Despite a well-rounded life experience that is truly admirable, Ms. James has yet to really put her stamp on the arcane business of politics, to demonstrate unerring political instincts. She's good, she's capable, but she's not great.
Does that matter? Maybe not. To win an election, you only have to get more seats than the other guy. You don't have to be Tommy Douglas.
Heck, Joe Clark once beat the grand Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The Dilton Doiley of Canadian politics, Dalton McGuinty, has twice been elected premier of Ontario. Stiff, colourless - albeit tough - Bill Bennett won three straight elections right here in British Columbia. And so on.
Unless the NDP begins to dip dramatically in public support, how does it make any sense for the party to beat itself up over the leader? Besides, with all due respect, who out there in NDP land could do better than Carole James?
… I thought so.
We'll always have Parros
As a guy who remembers when there used to be a place in the NHL for sleek, slight Camille "The Eel" Henry-type players, I'm not much of a fan of NHL enforcers. But suddenly, I like the Anaheim Ducks' designated goon, George Parros.
Big, burly George was number four on Sporting News' recent list of sports' brainiest athletes. Not only did Mr. Parros graduate from Princeton (a small, B.C. mining town, according to Wikipedia), he wrote his major thesis about the 1934 West Coast longshoremen's strike, one of the most fiercely fought labour disputes in U.S. history. At one point, San Francisco police fired point-black into the strikers, killing two and sparking a four-day general strike.
Mr. Parros told the Vancouver Sun's Ian Walker that he received an "A" on his thesis, entitled "Trouble at the Docks." Now that's the kind of news to diminish the inner grump of this aging, ex-labour reporter and warm the cockles of his heart.
I put in a call to my new union hero, but Mr. Parros was apparently so busy running Roberto Luongo that he forgot to phone back.
Hornby or not Hornby
Vancouver Councillor Suzanne Anton had trouble keeping her one-person NPA caucus together last week. First, she voted in favour of separate bike lanes on Hornby Street. A few hours later, when work actually started on the project, there was a caucus revolt, and Ms. Anton withdrew her support. No word yet on whether the "pro-lanes" Ms. Anton will be expelled from caucus by the "anti-lanes" Ms. Anton.
Be that as it may, however, the good councillor is appropriately miffed by T-shirts pedalled (ho ho ho) on Vision Vancouver's website, with the dubious inscription "Bike Lanes Make Me Hornby." Please, people. Leave the sophomoric jokes to me.
In her press release, Ms. Anton also notes that "commuters are now avoiding [Hornby Street]altogether because of significant traffic bottlenecks." Reminds me of one of Yogi Berra's purported sayings: "No one goes to that restaurant any more. It's always so crowded."
Be serious for a moment
Finally, huzzahs to the Vancouver Writers' Festival for bringing Israeli writer David Grossman to town next Thursday. The man is incredible. Listen to his moving words at the grave of his son, an army conscript killed in the final days of the Lebanon campaign in 2006. And reflect.
"Uri was a man of values. In recent years, that word has faded. It has even been ridiculed. In our disjointed, cruel, cynical world, it's not cool to have values. Or to be a humanist. Or to be really sensitive to the distress of others, even if the other is your enemy on the battlefield.
"Thank you, our love, for every moment that you were ours."