LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

NDP Convention May be a Barn-burner!

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted December 26, 2008)

On March 6 to 8 of this year, the provincial NDP party will say good-bye to Howard Hampton and hello to a new leader for the perennial third-place party in Ontario's legislature. The candidates running for election are Michael Prue, Gilles Bisson, Peter Tabuns and Hamilton's own Andrea Horwath. I am told by some sources that Peter Tabuns has the inside track at this point, but not to dismiss either Prue or Horwath.

Of the three candidates I know Andrea best. She and I served for a term on Hamilton's newly amalgamated Council, and when I became Mayor, she was a person whose counsel I valued in making decisions those early days. In fact, I was so impressed by her willingness to help me in my new role that I was hoping to ask her to be confirmed by Council as our city's standing deputy mayor. This would have been a departure from the monthly rotation that all councillors participate in for that duty. I am sure that Council would have approved. However, events overtook my wishes when Andrea successfully contested and won the provincial seat vacated by the untimely death of Dominic Agostino in 2004.

During my term as Mayor, when I visited Toronto to see this or that Minister, I would often pop in to say hello to Andrea. She understood the delicate balancing act that I had to perform with the government to seek its support for important Hamilton issues. She was always cordial.

I received an email the other day from a good friend and former Tory member of the legislature who was selling tickets to the NDP party across party lines so that new members might be able to vote for Andrea. He wasn't doing it out of any loyalty to the NDP but he was doing it out of loyalty to a Hamilton candidate.

For the record, as a recent candidate for the Federal Liberals, I pointed out that I would not buy a membership to the socialist party. I think I would prefer having a root canal first, the NDP standing for everything that is wrong in Hamilton; but, if asked, I would certainly make a donation to Andrea's campaign. She is a deserving candidate for leadership and far better than her opponents.

It speaks well of Andrea's campaign that she has former Mayor Bob Wade also supporting her bid by doing some fund-raising for Andrea as well. She seems to be attracting a cross-section of Hamiltonians to come to her assistance. Interestingly, however, Paul Miller, her colleague in the legislature and the newly elected member from Hamilton East Stoney Creek is not supporting her. He claims that she is inexperienced and is lacking in fiscal leadership, according to an article in the Stoney Creek News. What he isn't saying is that Andrea didn't support Paul in his nomination battle to represent the NDP locally; sources point out that his lack of support is all about pay-back for her earlier decision.

What is even more bizarre than not supporting the home-town candidate is that Paul Miller is throwing his vote behind Michael Prue from Toronto, citing his experience as a former Mayor of East York, fiscal capacity and support for de-amalgamation.

De-amalgamation? Yes, Paul Miller seems to riding that tired horse. It is true that Prue advocates a Quebec style de-amalgamation referendum tried in Montreal some years ago. The process is admittedly cumbersome and unwieldy. It didn't even yield the desired results in Montreal. In fact Miller too concludes that de-amalgamation may be impossible because of the prohibitive monetary costs of going back. Yet, he claims that the idea gives some people hope. If that is the reason that he is supporting Michael Prue, Mr. Miller is delusional. To my knowledge, his electors are not clamouring to unscramble the egg. Paul Miller may be looking for any justification to not support Andrea with this piece of rationale. It would be far more honest of him to simply announce that he feels Prue is the better leader and leave it at that. To raise the straw man of amalgamation doesn't do his constituency or the city any good whatever. Mr. Miller and his party need to find solutions to today's and tomorrow's problems. Seeking answers in 'yesterday' certainly will not achieve the desired results.

As for Andrea, she is practical enough to understand that the amalgamated city gives this community its best chance of moving forward. What we need, she would say, is good financial support from the province. We also need a local government that acts out of principle in the best interests of the entire community as well as solid and good leadership. At the moment we have none of those characteristics. That is why, if Andrea fails in her quest for the NDP's leadership, I would see her as a dark horse for the Mayoralty election in 2010. After all, since she has been able to achieve a cross-party cadre of supporters for this partisan position, it would be a shame to waste the group's interest and talent in 2010!

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