NDP Leadership 2003: Final Day

By Barton Wong
web posted January 27, 2003

Toronto- "The more I listen to him, the less he seems to know
about Commons issues," said the NDPer behind me to a
colleague as I did my usual early-morning eavesdropping on the
streetcar to the National Trade Centre. They were of course,
referring to Jack Layton. This was not exactly the enthusiastic
attitude among the grassroots I expected.

As this was the final day and with the new leader elected and
only a morning session left, you’d expect the hall to be half-
empty. Of course, it wasn’t. Everyone had stuck around so as to
hear Layton’s first major speech as party leader, which was
scheduled for noon and was to last a full forty-five minutes. As
for the television networks, only the dedicated team at CPAC
even bothered filming the last resolution session, which mostly
involved foreign policy issues. This was too bad, because it
turned out to be quite the show.

First however, came the elections for party president and
treasurer. There was nothing remarkable, though I did listen to
treasurer candidate Violet L. Stanger guarantee her defeat by
declaring the NDP "can have both Bay St. and Main St." Her
conclusion that, "I’ll get you the money, I promise ya," sounded
like an invitation for embezzlement. There was some amusement
to be had, when in order to demonstrate that the ballot boxes
were empty, a row of ushers lined up in front, each with a
cardboard box, raised them above their heads, shook them
about, and show the insides to the delegates, all to show that no
fraud was about to take place. A delegate would wave their
marked ballot wildly above their head in order to get the
attention of the ushers. There turned out to be a lot of problems
with the voting. There was confusion about the colour of the
ballot for treasurer. When there was a motion from the floor that
the balloting procedures should also be given in French, as the
NDP was a national party after all, the chair replied that
francophones would just have to get along with their translation
devices. "The balloting committee isn’t prepared to proceed in
that language at this stage," he said, since apparently no one on
the committee knew a word of French. Of course, then came a
motion demanding a bilingual member be placed immediately on
the balloting committee. This was followed by a demand from
the floor that the future ballots be numbered, in order that
colourblind delegates could distinguish between them. As this
comedy of errors was going on, the Nystrom delegate with
whom I had talked to yesterday (the one who assured me that
Nystrom had 30 000 supporters) came up and said that he was
"glad to see you’re getting your money’s worth" in entertainment.
He said that he had been standing in the corner when Layton’s
landslide had been announced. He then made an indescribable
sound that seemed to connote stunned bewilderment.

The speeches given regarding the foreign policy resolutions were
fun, if predictable. During a "debate" about passing a resolution
against an American invasion of Iraq, Svend Robinson got loud
applause for his bilingual speech which denounced what he
called "genocidal sanctions." "I looked into the eyes of an Iraqi
mother...and heard her plea, ‘Why? Why are they doing this to
us?’" said Robinson in describing his visit to Iraq. A member of
the Federal Council who had also visited Baghdad made a
speech decrying the "hegemonic militancy of President Bush’s
Pax Americana." This astonished me. It was the first time in my
three days at the convention that I had heard anyone call George
W. Bush "president." Of course the resolution passed, though a
lone dissenter forced the chair, labour activist Hassan Yussuff, to
embarassedly declare that the house was "almost unanimous."

Next up on the agenda was a resolution from the Socialist
International which denounced the violence of both Israelis and
Palestinians and asked for a resumption of the peace process.
Pretty uncontroversial stuff, you’d think. But a man from the
Public Service Alliance of Canada stepped up to the microphone
and in a strikingly vicious speech in a convention which had been
full of them, actually had the temerity to denounce the resolution
as being too even-handed. Why should they try to be impartial
he asked, when it was all too clear that it was Israel that was the
force of evil in the region? He sneered at what he called "the new
McCarthyite smear of being anti-Semitic." This insanity actually
got some loud applause from the floor along with a few boos. I
just about lost my pretence of neutrality and nearly began booing
as well. Thankfully, a Jewish member of the NDP came to the
defence of the resolution with a direct counter-argument."...if it is
perceived that we favour one side, then we are doing a
disservice to all the peoples of the Middle East," he said, adding
later in a scathing aside, "...if you are against this motion, then
you are against peace for both peoples in the Middle East." I
found myself applauding. Another delegate spoke up, this time to
denounce Israel as an "apartheid regime" which received the
unfair benefits of ten billion dollars in American aid. There was
no mention of the billions in American aid to Egypt. Dismissing
the need for impartiality out of hand, the delegate declared
vehemently, "When workers are on a picket line, there isn’t a
balance of justice between the workers, the forces of
management, [and] the forces of the state." Citing other historical
examples where there had been imbalances of justice, the
delegate cited the cases of East Timor, Ireland, South Africa,
and American imperialism in Vietnam. He made no denunciation
of the currently operating oppressive communist regime that had
replaced the Americans in Vietnam, but this was to be expected.
Alexa McDonough, now just an ordinary MP and still wearing
that godawful "Barney the Dinosaur" pantsuit, finally settled
matters. She said that she was "not interested in rhetorical
flourishes." McDonough pointed out that the resolution had been
"crafted with the full participation of the Israeli Labour Party,"
and she urged her fellow delegates to "show some tolerance and
respect." For the first time in my life, I found myself applauding
her. The resolution passed just about unanimously, which I found
hypocritical, given the strong amount of support I had seen for
those who had denounced it.

Another resolution from the Socialist International, this time
declaring that there should be no war in Iraq, now came up. The
delegate who had just been speaking about the "balance of
justice," now denounced this resolution as being too milquetoast
as well. He pointed out that while the resolution condemned
unilateral action, it left open the possibility for multilateral action
with UN approval. The delegate said there should be "No blood
for oil! No war! No way!" He suggested that UN weapons
inspectors should be sent to the United States, which he called
"the Evil Empire." Opposition to the war should be unconditional,
he said. A delegate from the United Nations Association in
Canada declared that "We do not create peace by making war,"
especially a war for oil. A woman from the Canadian Union of
Public Employees said she was proud that all six leadership
candidates were walking in lockstep with each other when it
came to any war in Iraq. She too said, "It’s all about oil."
President Bush was attempting to put together "a coalition of the
willing, which is in fact, a coalition of the coerced." Everyone
must oppose any war in Iraq, "no matter what the UN Security
Council says."

As the time for Jack Layton’s Order of the Day drew nearer,
more and more prominent people came down to the convention
floor. There was Lorne Nystrom on a cellphone, a man who I
am 95% certain was Globe & Mail columnist Rick Salutin, Joe
Comartin, Layton’s wife Councillor Olivia Chow, Pierre
Ducasse, City TV’s Adam Vaughn, but no Bev Meslo. Bill
Blaikie was conducting an interview with CPAC’s Holly Doan,
towering above her by over a foot-and-a-half. A resolution
asking for a referendum on implementation of the Romanow
Report was defeated, but not before someone denounced "the
Liberal-Conservative-Alliance axis that almost deny the
existence of this report," which I found really funny. The 23-year
old unfortunate whom the party had nominated to run in the
Perth-Middlesex by-election arrived on the floor to advertise his
campaign complete with an escort of sign–holders. He made all
the right noises about joining the "fight against globalization" and
made a game try of speaking that odd dialect of French that
most anglophone NDP members affect to use when they wish to
demonstrate their "bilingualism." The balloting committee
proceeded to announce the results of the party executive
elections almost completely in French as if to compensate for
their English unilingualism earlier. One of the delegates smelt a
fish when he said that the numbers did not add up correctly, but
it turned out that he had misheard. Someone from the platform
then announced that they had completely misprinted the name of
the party’s francophone associate president, Pierre Ducasse, and
had substituted a woman’s name in his place.

While these language follies were going on, someone urgently
handed to me pamphlets asking me to help free the Cuban Five
and advertising for the Pan-Canadian Student Anti-War
Conference being held at the University of Toronto. "Books not
bombs!" was their motto. But I was distracted from all this, as
the time for Layton’s speech was drawing near. MP Dick
Proctor, as he introduced the Federal Caucus, told the house,
"The next time we meet for convention, they’ll sure as hell be a
lot more of us." As the 14 arrived on stage, the mob erupted into
a prolonged chant of "NDP! NDP! NDP!" I watched as "Rick
Salutin" stifled a yawn. Newly re-elected party president Adam
Giambrone, still looking like the perpetual adolescent and still
mangling the French language, made a brief introduction before
Layton’s speech. Layton stepped on stage, still wearing his
bright NDP-orange tie (I hope this doesn’t become a trademark
of his), while the Layton victory song ("It’s time, it’s time for a
celebration\ It’s time for a new relation," etc.) blared at us in
English and French. The speech he gave was rather banal in
content, but lively enough in delivery. Layton never did have that
"deer in the headlights" paralysis that seemed to plague Audrey
McLaughlin and Alexa McDonough so much of the time.

Layton said that, "today I want to speak to the people of
Canada. I want to offer them a choice." As he had, time and time
again during his campaign, he made reference to the nearby wind
turbine and he contrasted that clean source of energy with the
Lakeview Coal Plant, a polluter which he said was owned by a
company Paul Martin had bought. I was distracted from Layton,
when a Quebec delegate came around with a bucket to beg for
money. Bev Meslo was now ten thousand dollars in debt and
because she had received so few votes, she had lost her deposit.
You would think a feeling of schadenfreude would have emerged
at that moment, but instead I felt embarrassed and more than a
little sorry for her. I came up with what change I could and I
found myself in the incongruous position of contributing nearly
three dollars to help Meslo out of her financial problems.

When I got my attention back to Layton, he was cracking a
series of sarcasms at the expense of the Liberals and the
Alliance: "Far too long, what the Liberals and the Alliance say
has been called a ‘debate.’" (Laughter.) "But a debate involves
disagreement!" (More laughter.) He asked us, "How many of
you have felt those tax cuts in your pocket books?" and the
assembly of NDPers shouted back at him, "None!" Layton
assured Canadians that now, "You have a real choice in the New
Democrats." As for the Official Opposition, Layton sardonically
said that unlike Stephen Harper after his election as a party
leader, he would not go to the beach, he would not prefer "sun
over solutions," he would not go on vacation, he’d be going
straight to work (of course, Layton did not mention how Harper
in fact, spent most of the summer of 2002 successfully clearing
up the Alliance’s massive debts). Harper, along with the
"pathetic attempts of the Alliance," Layton said, "may well be
leading something, but it’s not the Opposition." He liked this
witticism so much, he would repeat it or some variant of it
several times in his speech. Layton waxed eloquent about the "6
000 people right here in this country’s biggest and richest city
living and dying on the streets" (cries of "Shame!" erupted from
the audience). "Don’t our citizens deserve something better than
a sleeping bag on the sidewalk?" he asked us. He waxed
indignant over American foreign policy and said that Canada
should become once again, "a leader in peace." "Invading Iraq is
wrong, period!" Layton declared. With that, he was given a
thunderous standing ovation and the crowd began screaming out,
"No war, George Bush! No war, George Bush!" over and over
again.

Paul Martin and the Alliance agree on practically everything
fundamental, Layton asserted. Debate in Parliament had been
reduced to "the odd quibble [ed. like the billion-dollar cost
overruns in the gun registry?] over this boondoggle and that." He
thinks, "it is a tragedy that the boondoggle is the issue of the
day." In fact, the government and the opposition were so blind,
that they had not noticed the fact that they had made a
"boondoggle of democracy." Layton said that the inequity of
wealth between North and South was "a timebomb more
dangerous than we have ever seen" and that "No one is speaking
of the fundamental solidarity needed between the peoples of the
world other than your New Democrat members in Parliament."
"It shouldn’t be record student debt that is a right," he shouted,
"it should be education that is a right!" These were all rote left-
wing themes and I sensed that Layton was really just paying
them lip-service. It’s environmental and lifestyle issues that are
Layton’s true raison d’être.

Again and again, he obsessed over the environmental
improvements he had pushed through in Toronto. He wanted to
expand a Toronto program of retrofitting old buildings for energy
efficiency nationwide, predicting it would bring one million
person years of work to Canadian industry. His favourite
catchphrases are of a "vision of sustainability," a "New Economy,
" and a "New Society." Layton was offering Canadians what he
called "a real choice." He actually at this point, made a bizarre
and irrelevant segue into the minefield of abortion politics,
suddenly saying out of nowhere "I always am and shall always be
pro-choice," which got him another standing ovation, though
some of the older-looking party members very conspicuously sat
on their hands.

Going once again on the attack, he said that, "If there was a time
for a party to rise, it is now," for he made the prediction that Paul
Martin would only be Prime Minister for only "a brief period"
and that Martin was in hock to Big Business. He’d been
"studying a list of Martin’s corporate donors" and he’d found
that they’re "a lot different from our list of donors," which got him
a laugh. Layton did hint however, that he was not closed to the
possibility of joining a Liberal minority government, if it ever
came to that. He heaped praise on the 1972-74 minority
government, when NDP leader David Lewis pushed through a
nationwide affordable housing program. He said he was proud of
the fact that 2.2 million Canadian now lived in the government
housing Lewis had helped build, which sounded rather odd. But
Layton said he wanted a national referendum on Proportional
Representation to be held first, as a pre-condition before joining
any Liberal minority.

Layton assured those concerned by his lack of seat, that he
indeed thinks that "serving in Parliament matters, it matters a lot,"
and that he hoped to be putting on his father’s parliamentary pin
which he was carrying in pocket, very, very soon. Ironically, the
elder Layton had been a cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney’s
government, but that of course, remain unsaid. He climaxed with
this: "We’re going to make Canada the place of our dreams; the
hope and the dream that we cling to. Thank you!" Of course,
Layton got a sustained standing ovation. Rather more
surprisingly, as he was hugging all his opponents, when he put his
arm around Pierre Ducasse and with Pierre Ducasse only, the
entire house erupted yet again. This was not bad at all for the
candidate who had finished second-last in the leadership race.
There was one last point of order, when a rather desperate union
organizer pleaded with the delegates to walk a nearby picket line
for half an hour or so, in order to show their solidarity with the
strikers, whom he claimed were being plagued by scabs,
"racism, discrimination, the works." President Giambrone then
called a motion for adjournment, which passed nearly
unanimously and to the sounds of the Guess Who’s Share The
Land which had been endlessly repeated over three days, the
2003 NDP Leadership Convention adjourned.

And did they make the right choice in picking Jack Layton?
Well, and I can say this honestly even as a conservative, with
Layton’s new responsibilities, Toronto is losing one of its most
effective and pro-active city councillors ever. I remember a
conversation I had with a lefty the week before at the university.
For him, Lorne Nystrom was a "Third Way" sell-out and Jack
Layton was the candidate of the urban elites, which was why he
was supporting Bill Blaikie. A NDP led by Layton, he asserted,
would be a party of urban, upper middle-class intellectuals, as
relevent and as appealing to the greater public, as professors at
an university are today. It’d be a party of yuppies, of bobos, of
champagne fundraisers, and limousine liberalism. Blaikie, on the
other hand, would get the NDP back to basics, not as a party
prostituting itself for votes, but as a social movement based on
Prairie farmers and trade unionists. Such a NDP would probably
never form a federal government, but as long as it improved the
living conditions of those two groups by influencing the parties
that would win elections, they would have succeeded. I can see
the man’s point. Nevertheless, if I had had a chance to vote
during this weekend’s convention and I was a pragmatist who
did not want to frighten people away, I would have voted for
Nystrom. If I had voted on the basis of who impressed me the
most with his or her political ideas, I would have voted for
Ducasse. But if I was voting strategically for the person who
would get the party more seats, I would have supported the very
telegenic Layton. Sure, he could very well turn out to be another
Stockwell Day and/or lose to Dennis Mills which would be
disastrous, but where else could we go from here, but up? And
one more thing. My politics might be the complete opposite of
Layton’s, but I’m also a very, very proud Torontonian. Everyone
in this city, left or right, respects Jack Layton. We in Toronto are
simply sick and tired of the rest of the country bashing us and
treating us like, well, dirt, especially the Ontario-based Chretien
Liberals. It’s about time we had a Toronto-centric candidate
who advertised and advocated for our concerns and our issues
on the national stage. We in this city trust and some of us even
love Jack Layton because, in the final analysis, he is and always
will be, one of us.

According to his Identification Badge at least, Barton Wong was
Observer No. 31, acting as a representative of the University of
Toronto at the 2003 NDP Leadership Convention.

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