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The road to Parliament Hill - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

Before I get to The Commentary for this Monday morning, let me digress for a moment and extend sincere congratulations to an old acquaintance of mine and Maneesh Puri’s. Ted Field, CKNW’s ace reporter has recently received a Jack Webster Award nomination for his work covering the WTO riots of last November in Seattle. If you recall, Ted was caught in the hub of that upheaval, as while he was filing a story live, he was arrested. It made for exciting radio and now a nomination for journalism’s highest honour, in this town. He’s a consummate professional and a nice guy. He let us follow him around as he covered the NDP Convention of last February, which led us to the floor of that well-guarded hall. I hope he wins.

On another topic: As I said at last Friday’s roast honouring Brian Nguyen, my thoughts are with Pierre Trudeau and his family as he weathers another storm. He’s an amazing personality and a giant in Canadian culture.

VANCOUVER -- Sometime today, hopefully, the people of Kings-Hant and Okanagan-Coquihalla will vote for a new Member of Parliament. Mr. Day goes to Ottawa? Mr. Clark goes to Ottawa, again?

By-elections are a rare phenomenon. The last 4 or 5 barely registered any public interest. Today’s may be no different, except that the shoo-ins to win are actually national leaders of national parties. Furthermore, one (Stockwell Day) should he win, will assume the mantel of Leader of the Official Opposition. The other fellow is a former Prime Minster, now leader of the 5th party in this 5-party House of Commons.

Joe Clark, the former PM and again leader of the Progressive Conservatives is squaring off in Kings-Hant, Nova Scotia. He’ll win easily.

Stockwell Day, the former Treasurer of the great province of Alberta and now leader of the Canadian Alliance, is running in Okanagan-Coquihalla, British Columbia. He’ll win easily.

Let tonight’s result not be some sort of barometer of public opinion regarding the governing Liberals. We aren’t so lucky in registering our disdain for the government, as Jean Chrétien hasn’t delegated candidates to run in both by-elections, under the Liberal banner.

Let tonight’s result not be some sort of barometer of the right-wing vote in Canada. Sure you have two leaders of two national parties that represent the fractured right-wing vote in this country, but the Tories aren’t fielding a candidate in the BC by-election. They say out of respect to Mr. Day, I say out of the fear of embarrassment. And face it, the Alliance will do horribly in Nova Scotia, regardless of the Mykytyshyn factor.

What can be expected of today’s practice of democracy is that Stockwell Day and the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark will win and take their seats in the Commons a week from now. The neophyte will be directly in front of the PM; the bruised veteran, somewhere near the end of that amazing room.

I’m giving up on the prospect of a fall election. Face it Jean Chrétien will want Joe and Stock to frolic and fail in the arena of parliamentary performance for a couple of months to deflect attention from his beleaguered ranks. (Hello Jane Stewart.) Perhaps by then the Rt. Hon. Jean will be replaced or perhaps be ready to take them buggers on. Hopefully the former.

Tonight’s result will be predictable as hell. The kicker and pay off will be a most exciting fall session of Parliament. The battle lines will be drawn and the stage set for a spring election. It kicks off 1 week from now - next Monday - for the umpteenth time.

We should hardly wait.


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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .