Me and the NDP; a little bit of history

I have never been able to relate to people who — during an election campaign — say, "I always vote for the candidate. It doesn't matter to me which party they belong to — if I like them as a person and I think they can do a good job, that's who I'll vote for."

I said to Dan earlier today, "I don't care if I'm madly in love with a candidate. If he's running for the Liberals — or even the Conservatives — I wouldn't vote for him." Dan said, "Thanks for the heads-up."

I vote for a Party. I've voted for the same Party in every election — federal and provincial — since 1965. I've voted NDP in all three Maritime provinces, in Ontario and in Quebec.

More than once, I've voted for the Party when the candidate was a name written in on the ballot, just to fill the space. I remember voting in two different New Brunswick elections at the Bay du Vin Rural High School — once when the leader was J. Albert Richardson, the other when the leader was John LaBossiere. I'm sure I knew something about them at the time but I have no memory of their campaigns at this point.

We always enjoyed looking at the poll-by-poll results in the newspaper because in the poll where we voted, there it was recorded for posterity: NDP — 2.

In Prince Edward Island, I remember waking up in the morning following the election that saw Brian Mulroney become Prime Minister. I can still feel the cold chill that gripped me when I tried to comprehend a political world that already included Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Mulroney wasn't my fault; I had voted NDP which was then led by Ed Broadbent. It wasn't enough.

I moved to Nova Scotia shortly after that and have voted NDP many times, both provincially and federally.

But my very first election experience was in Montreal in 1965. I would have been 22 so it's possible I voted somewhere earlier but if I did, I don't remember it. But I remember 1965.

We were living on Aylmer St. in what was then called — probably still is called — the student ghetto. It was a lively neighbourhood with a lot of flavour, near McGill, near downtown, not that far from Park Ave.

I'm not sure how we became aware of our NDP candidate. It might have been something as simple as seeing a poster on the street. But of course it seized our interest because the candidate's name was Frank Auf der Maur. Auf der Maur was already a household name in Montreal, not Frank but Nick. Frank was Nick's older brother. When I was looking for some information about him earlier today, I found the write-up from his yearbook when he graduated from the Royal Military College in Kingston:

1956 No. 3525 C.S.C. FRANK SEVERIN AUF DER MAUR D'Arcy McGee High School. On October 6. 1934, the city of Montreal delighted in the birth of a favourite son marked by the hand of destiny to become one of the honoured members of the Graduating Class of '56 at R.M.C. After a successful stay at D'Arcy McGee High School, Frank decided to abandon the worldly pleasures of city life and retire into the more ascetic surroundings of Kingston.

During his four years at the College, Frank always maintained the same happy, debonair attitude which made him many friends and a reputation for being always ready for a party. Always an active competitor, Frank was for two years a solid bulwark of the Junior Football team before graduating to the Seniors in his final years.

Frank is a devoted Chemical Engineer and his future along this line is very bright indeed in the light of past achievements. After graduation from the College, our friend talks of entering McGill and possibly U. of Alberta. It seems that the west also presents certain definite social attractions difficult to neglect. His last summer's training in Edmonton has turned his ambitions westward. The very best to you, Frank.

We decided to go to one of his campaign events. I don't remember much about it. I think it was in a community hall of some kind — it was nice, not a bad venue. There were very few people there and I think a table where there was cheese and fruit and some juices. Unless I'm remembering badly, the candidate was a little tight. I didn't blame him. I would guess that by this point in his campaign, he would have loved to disappear.

His Liberal opponent was a handsome young lawyer, often described as Montreal's most eligible bachelor, John Turner by name. His campaign was high-profile, lots of media, lots of hangers-on, big crowds. He was a star. There was no crystal ball to foretell that Pierre Trudeau would come along and wring the life out of John Turner's political future.

He won that time anyway and was off to Ottawa and later, off to British Columbia where the rest of his political career unfolded.

But I voted for Frank because I believed in his Party. I most certainly believed in his leader.

Tommy Douglas was a star too. His platform that year was pretty straightforward:

New Democratic Party:

1. implement a national medicare program by July 1, 1967;

2. eliminate university tuition fees;

3. provide grants for universities' capital costs;

4. increased funding for technical training;

5. increase the minimum price for wheat;

6.increase the old age security payment from $75 per month to $100 per month at age 65;

7. implement economic planning program that lays down guidelines for wages and prices;

8. halt unjustified price increases.

Who wouldn't vote for that?

The NDP is an organization made up of humans and it can make mistakes. Sometimes they're stupid mistakes, sometimes they're terrible mistakes, sometimes they're both.

I've written this today to assure myself that in spite of the mistakes, in spite of my shock and anger at some of the things the Party does, I'm not abandoning the NDP and I'm not going to punish it. I'll still vote NDP and I'll hope it can find a way out of the fix it's got itself into.

I am angry though.