After watching a fun-filled weekend of Liberal Leadership
hi-jinks that first week of December, I couldn’t help but be
overcome with the impression that I was watching an old rerun of Saved by the Bell. The amount of
high school-like sway tactics was incredible to me. As Ontario’s arguably favourite political party
took the stage for a weekend filled with political reform and
elections, the press coverage of the event took on a somewhat childish
point of view concerning the proceedings. With people running in every
direction attempting to sway one another’s voting choices and
grown men sporting t-shirts that read “Buy my vote,” I
waited patiently for the free promotional CDs and t-shirts to fly off
the stage, and maybe for the sway-vote delegates to be invited to sit
at the cool kids table in parliament. And the most interesting part of
it all was that no one seemed to be concerned that this was the
environment in which the next leader of the liberal party or even the
next Prime Minster would be elected into power. In fact, it was quite
the opposite as the leadership choices began to dwindle; after each
ballot the frenzy seemed to erupt even further with footage of
delegates being harassed in line while waiting to cast their vote and
others literally running through the crowd in hot pursuit of still
undecided voters.
Here I thought that the leaders of political
parties in Canada were elected because of the
kind of person they were, the issues they stood for, and how people
evaluated their ability to incite change. Never once would I have
assumed that the people responsible for voting could be convinced hours
or even mere minutes or seconds before their vote to change their
support from one candidate to another. And while it may be arguable,
with thirty percent of the delegates under thirty, that these kinds of
spectacles were so prevalent this year because of this large youth
contingent, it seems that it is an unlikely cause. If we are going to
blame the youth delegates for all of the convention tom-foolery then it
would be logical to blame the high youth presence for an equally
childish leadership decision. Only the election of Stéphane
Dion was nothing childish or foolish. It
seems instead that Stéphane Dion’s youth supporters were able to make a
brave and knowledgeable push for him despite the chaos of their
surroundings, which could have so easily swayed their decision. Old
party establishments were rebuffed in place of a man who stands for the
environment and a solidified Canadian nation, strongly committed to
making the Liberal party once more a force to be reckoned with. The
final decision to elect Stéphane Dion over such candidates as Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff proved politically brave and sent a
definite message that Liberals and Canadians alike are not happy with
the state of government in our country today.
While I cannot say that I was impressed by
the actions of all the Liberal delegates throughout the weekend and the
ways they attempted to convince their peers of a candidate’s
qualifications, I can say that I am impressed that Stéphane
Dion’s brand of liberal
environmentalism was able to pull through. And while it may be clear
that the youth who pushed him into power may not, on the surface, act
as though they are well seasoned political players, it is simply
because they are not – they are people with vision and initiative
and people who recognize that there is a need for a leader like Stéphane Dion to
organize their frenzied energy and passion for real Canadian issues
into a Liberal Party of Canada that can really win back the majority in
Parliament. In the end, I am tempted to believe that the media’s
portrayal of the event may have inevitably centred
upon the most exciting and frenzied parts of the Convention leaving a
disorganized and childish image of all the delegates that may not be
entirely true. In any case, it was the youth delegates who stood strong
in their convictions, despite the unprofessional nature of others in
attendance, and voted for Mr. Dion because of
his platform and his character – not because they were harassed
and cajoled by their peers to do so.
