That winning feeling

By Ivan Morgan

May 22, 1979, was a big day in my political education. I was 19 and was voting for the first time in a federal election. It was a big thrill. I voted for Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservatives. I cast my ballot at 8 in the morning just as the polls opened and then headed straight to John Crosbie’s campaign headquarters, where I was told I was needed for the day. When I got there his executive assistant pulled me aside.
“Do you know the meaning of the word ‘nobody’?” he asked me pointedly. Of course, I replied.
He looked deep into my eyes, “No, really. Do you understand the term ‘nobody?”
Sure, I said, getting annoyed.
He told me Mr. Crosbie was in the back room. I was to stand by the door and nobody – nobody – was allowed to see him. Nobody.
I turned away all manner of prominent citizens that day, many who did not take kindly to some snot-nosed teenager stopping them from seeing the candidate. That went triple for a very prominent lawyer whose daughter he knew I fancied. He didn’t like me from the get-go and was certainly not used to being told no by anyone, let alone the likes of me. Nonetheless, he was told. It was fun.
The whole day I was a faithful gatekeeper, while Mr. Crosbie, in the back room, paced back and forth looking out the window. For 12 hours.
I thought of that last week when, 46 years later, I cast my ballot in this latest election.
Not to sound too sappy, but I have seen and heard a lot in politics over the intervening five decades, worked a lot of campaigns, covered even more, but the fundamental concept of democracy remails sacred to me. And obviously not just to me. Right across Canada, people like me and you shuffled into rec centres, church basements and the like, and voted for what we want for our country.
I was surprised how happy that made me. After all the crap we have all been put through over the last year, we finally get our say.
Again, I was not aware this election would affect me like this. I was not expecting to feel so good about the outcome. Frankly, I was expecting the opposite.
What I learned at such a tender age, so long ago, is that democracy matters. Mr. Crosbie, a powerful man with powerful friends, had to sit tight while the rest of us voted. He had to get our votes. Was he worried? He did pace for 12 hours. Did he win? Yes, but it was a long day.
Last week’s results reminded me of the wisdom of the average citizen.
Political parties want power and will do all manner of things to get it. But so far, we all still agree that, after all the nonsense, it is us who have the final word. As long as we have democracy, with all its imperfections, the richest and the most powerful, the wackiest ideologues and all the single issue “activists” out there do have to heed what we say. For some reason this election really brought that home for me, and I wasn’t expecting that. Perhaps I am getting old and sentimental.
I watched the results last week wondering what Canadians would say. Now we know. Lots of pundits will have no end of explanations about what happened and why, but the fact is we all spoke, and this is what we wanted collectively. It is, as they say, what it is.
The race was so close that as far as I can see the polarization, the divisiveness, and hostility we have all suffered through in Canadian politics is going to have to end. Will we all work together, or is the nation hopelessly divided? I think the former. What exactly is the difference between a Carney Liberal and a Poilievre Conservative? Clearly no one had any appetite for the fringe parties. From where I sit, I think we all voted for slightly different versions of the same thing. Seems to me that the vast majority of Canadians voted for the middle way. And with the highest voter turnout in 30 years, I don’t know how we could be clearer.
Seems to me Canada has told federal politicians to get over themselves and fix our common problems. This new group of politicians are going to have to work together, understand each other, and hash out all the things we want.
Or else.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com