“Yet” – The Biggest Word in the Election

It was easy for the Progressive Conservatives (say this in the high nasal tones of Preston Manning because it sounds so much more fun!) …….in previous elections it was easy for the party to type-cast and pigeon hole former Federal Liberal leaders Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff with advertisements that pointed out their weaknesses. And they were glaring.

But something must have showed up in the Conservative polling results on how Justin Trudeau was perceived by the voting public.

So they decided to portray him as someone who “had nice hair, but isn’t ready Yet”

Their TV media blitz was so effective that when my wife asked my ten year old if he knew who Justin Trudeau was, he said

“Isn’t that the guy with the nice hair, but he isn’t ready yet”

It appears that the Conservatives were able to lock up the elementary school vote relatively early in this campaign.

But the ad also said something else – something much more profound than side comments about someone’s hair.

It was encased by the word ‘yet’. With the word “yet”, it said that Trudeau, will  be ready some time in the future – ready to be to become Prime Minister. Hmm, quite an admission from a competitor. And one who has never been afraid to pull punches.  And it also told all the future Conservative leadership candidates who might/will succeed Harper, that Justin is probably the one who will become Prime Minister, not them. Notice all the folks who left the Conservative fold recently – senior ministers, John Baird and Peter Mackay.

It essentially said ‘hey, give me, Stephen, one more kick at the cat’

And most profoundly, it showed that they were a bit scared of him. It showed they were running scared not wanting to take head-on either Justin, or the Trudeau brand itself.

Now in the last few days of a long campaign the Conservative radio ads are saying essentially..

“Stephen isn’t perfect……but heck, he has given you lots of money, and will continue to do so”

Winston Churchill said something to the effect that

‘if you weren’t a Socialist when you were young then you have no heart, and if you weren’t a Conservative when you were older then you had no brain’.

Essentially middle age Canadians face with the following choice.  Are they to hold their noses and vote for the incumbent because of their own pursuit of the almighty dollar, or are they willing to connect back to the optimism of their youth, and the idealism of their children,  who now look at the alternative and reject the word “Yet”.

‘Two Years……Less a Day’

The other night as I looked over at the list of candidates for the position of President of our local South Delta Minor Hockey Association, I couldn’t help but notice that my name was the only one on the list.

In chairing our Annual General Meeting as Interim President of the SDMHA, I found it tough to withdraw at that point and besides I had looked forward to a night of electioneering and campaigning.

I had dreams of Michael Wilson walking across the convention floor past John Crosbie coming to me, like the young Joe Clark, to be crowned as the new leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Or a young John Kennedy almost winning the US Vice Presidency in 1956 as young first term senator -not knowing that years later Marilyn Monroe would be singing “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to me. I had a dream.

But without the fireworks and the ‘Vote for Pedro’ sloganeering, it was left to Kellie, our energetic and efficient board Secretary, to move my election to one of acclamation, asking the same question 3 times.
(The meeting was held in Tsawwassen after all, and half of us will likely miss hearing 1 or 2 of the questions!)

“Are there any other candidates from the floor that would like to put their name forward for the position of President? ”

Suddenly it was if people’s hands had been nailed to the sides of their chairs, the annual report suddenly looked like an absorbing novel, and adults started sending emails home to their kids with reminders to feed the cat.

With thoughts of Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s line ‘that you shouldn’t trust anyone who really wants to be the Prime Minister’ …..I accepted my sentence….er… nomination saying.

“I am honoured to serve as the President of the South Delta Minor Hockey Association for a term of …two years less a day”.

Now as I sit at my home office at Tim’s central in downtown metropolitan Tsawwassen I can see that the signs have been taken down, the volunteers have gone home with hangovers from a post-election celebration – a beer at the Rose & Crown – and all that remains are the encouraging words from my family

“Dad, does that mean you still have to go to all of those meetings?”

and the congratulatory emails from fellow members

“Well done Murray -so does that mean that there is going to be an A-3 Peewee team this year?”