Pam in Taipei

democracy in action...

No, this post isn't about anything quite as stirring as the last time I used this phrase when reporting on the FTAA protests in Quebec city in 1999(?), but one shouldn't lose sight of the fact that democracy has, despite all our jaded protests to the contrary, become a part of our everyday life.

(The picture, BTW, is of election signs for the upcoming Taipei municipal elections.)

I have been following the recently concluded Liberal Leadership Convention on cbc.ca and thought I'd put in my two cents.

First, a small observation on the expat perspective in Taiwan: after mentioning the convention in passing to a Canadian colleague, I realized how little relevance any of it has on someone who has been out of the country for even a mere 2 or 3 years. For all those who still consider Canadian politics dull, it has been anything but in this recent time. The aforementioned colleague's last contact with Canadian politics, though only 2.5 years ago, was with a strong Liberal majority government headed by Chretien. Think about that one. In just 2.5 years, he has missed the sponsorship scandal, Stephen Harper becoming leader of the Progressive Conservatives, a short and dismal term of Liberal government headed by Paul Martin, and now has no sense of what it means to have Harper as our first Tory PM in 13 years, or of the significance of the just concluded leadership race for the Liberals.

With the Liberal Party divided along Chretien and Martin lines, and Martin's sweaty and disappointing succession to prime ministership and handling of the sponsorship scandal, it took only consistency and a clean record for Harper to oust Martin from his seat at the top in February 2006.

Since then, the Liberals have been rebuilding their party from the ground up, and after a 10 month interim with no leader, Liberals finally came together to get a fresh start this past weekend.

I have to admit: I started out charmed by the Globe and Mail special on Michael Ignatieff in August that only played up the buzz about Ignatieff having "that Trudeau thing". I was entranced by his media moniker, "The Philosopher King", and visions of Plato's Sun and Cave danced in my head.

After Martin's sad showing, I wanted a leader with a spine and a personality more than I cared about his track record. But as I started to follow the leadership race, I realized that Iggy's wondrous myth of Er may just be a myth. Philosopher King? He is no better qualified for the title than his rivals - Bob Rae was Iggy's roomie at U of T and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he studied under Isaiah Berlin. Stephane Dion (the now elected Liberal leader) has a doctorate in sociology from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and taught political science at the Universite de Moncton and the University of Montreal, and has been accused of being too bookish to be party leader.

As the ballots went through, Iggy's arrogance began to wear on me, climaxing at this repugnantly empty and cocksure election speech: http://www.cbc.ca/clips/rm-hi/ignatieff-speech061201.rm

Still, when I woke up on Sunday morning and saw Stephane Dion in the CBC headlines as winner, I was knocked off my feet. I hadn't even considered him! Then I went back and listened to this biting, principled and well-rounded speech: http://www.cbc.ca/clips/rm-hi/dion-speech061201.rm

It seemed the unfailingly polite bookworm had some teeth after all. Some genuinely clever attacks on Harper, and a speech that expounded on his track record for the environment and hit the nail on the head concerning what this century's market economy will turn upon - sustainability. His three pillars of fiscal prosperity, social justice, and environmental stewardship rang true for me. Even with the tail-end of his speech cut off by music, his speech was strong and cohesive (unlike Bob Rae's strangely rambly and self-doubting stroll off the teleprompter.)

I forecast good news for the newly formed liberal party. I think Dion's underdog personality will win him a few more unexpected edges in the coming political game. He's got the hidden spunk of the bookworm I was in high school - the kid who sat quietly until the marks counted for oral presentations in English class, and then reveled in the limelight delivering punchy jabs at the administration. Bottom line? I like him. He's the Canadian version of our Americanized Ignatieff - Ballsy served with a side of please and thank you.

He makes me excited again. Yup, excited about Canadian politics. On a sidenote, I can't wait to see Martha Hall Findlay prove herself in Cabinet (likely, since she backed Dion after dropping out) and build the track record she needs to make it to the forefront of Canadian politics. Finally an attractive woman with brains and a mind for politics... oh, and who can string together a cohesive sentence (sorry Belinda, your public speaking needs some work).

posted by Pamplemousse @ 10:39 PM