Farewell
By Eric Dowd
Toronto – Parting speeches when political leaders retire are being sanitized as if scrubbed by Molly Maids so voters are deprived of some useful thoughts.
This happened again when Ernie Eves, defeated as Progressive Conservative premier in the 2003 election and an MPP of substance more than two decades, made his final appearance in the legislature.
Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty said Eves showed class and grace, particularly in offering advice after losing, and did not stoop to personal acrimony, which had some truth.
New Democrat leader Howard Hampton said Eves conducted himself as every MPP should and Eves continued the harmony by urging politicians to recognize there is good in all parties.
If McGuinty had said what was most on his mind he would have chided Eves for insisting in the election the financial picture was so rosy he would balance his budget and encouraging the Liberals to make costly promises they could not deliver, but he kept silent.
Hampton would have lamented his party got nowhere near as many votes as Tories tarnished by weakening services while living high on taxpayers’ money.
The three leaders were so much on their best behaviour you would have thought their mothers were watching and Eves mentioned his was, on TV, as she often does.
Opponents similarly offered only compliments when Eves’s Tory predecessor as premier, Mike Harris, retired much more responsible for those problems than Eves.
McGuinty said admiringly Harris transformed politics by showing those wanting to win support have to present ideas clearly and simply, as Harris did in his Common Sense Revolution.
Hampton said Harris made a contribution by starting a debate on what the public’s role should be in the ownership and control of health facilities, energy production, water and sewage treatment and schools.
NDP MPPs chummily even sang a song they wrote, predicting more `golfing with the lads,’ that would have made some of their feistier predecessors turn in their graves.
Contrast this to Bob Rae replying to farewells after being defeated as NDP premier a decade ago and urging `ordinary and extraordinary people’ to speak up against the newly installed Harris with his plans to slash spending and government..
Rae commended an earlier Tory premier, William Davis, for recognizing deficits can be helpful particularly in a recession and showing a sense of proportion and balance.
He said Harris and his `right-wing zealots’ had lost this completely, their philosophies were absurd and they should recognize government was no evil, but the means people had chosen to come together to accomplish goals.
Harris, who had a tough hide both in imposing policies and ignoring criticisms, still joined the traditional ovation for a departing leader.
But Rae was a milquetoast compared to his predecessor leading the NDP, Michael Cassidy, who retired after one unsuccessful term.
Cassidy used his farewell speech to charge Davis `sold himself like soap’ to beat him in an election. He complained Davis favored business and set limits on how much it could donate so high they enabled him to buy TV commercials on a scale opponents could not match.
Cassidy went after Davis’s ministers in turn, accusing attorney-general Roy McMurtry, now an august chief justice, of supporting police whether they were right or wrong.
He scoffed Frank Miller, then treasurer, later premier and renowned for his good humor, was so determined to be genial `if the legislature buildings were burning down, he would say how nice it was to toast his feet in front of a fire.’
Cassidy turned on the Liberals and said they had become right-wing reactionaries and missed a chance to reach out to ordinary voters.
Davis responded charitably Cassidy was frustrated at losing and he did not hold his criticisms against him.
But the former NDP leader got on a provincial board while the Conservatives were out of government and their first act when they returned was to announce he was fired, an example all the honeyed parting words do not mean a lot.
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