They’ve been polar opposites in front of the public for at least four years, through at least two campaigns. They’ve been bitter ideological enemies. Neither, it would seem, could have anything in common with the other. Neither could ever imagine sending the other a Christmas card. And yet, at the height of a heated political discussion, the other night, there was a pause.
“My opponent makes a good point,” he said. “I can agree with that.”
It was Progressive Conservative John O’Toole agreeing with Liberal candidate Betty Somerville on an aspect of home care and maintaining small hospitals in their provincial riding. On Monday and Tuesday nights, this week, I was recruited to moderate at two all-candidates debates in the Durham riding, east of Toronto. While there was little at issue in this election upon which any of the candidates could agree, I think I’ve found the common ground among these politicians. And it’s worth commending.
Despite all else, politicians are people too. We spend so much time vilifying those at the other end of the political spectrum, we sometimes fail to recognize the things we have in common. It was fairly late in the Monday session, when a woman in the audience asked which of the candidates was prepared to ensure the survival of a small medical facility such as the Uxbridge Cottage Hospital. The comments that followed illustrated the tight connection each of the candidates felt for the doctors, nurses and hospital staff in local hospitals. Each candidate, it seemed, had a particular reason to support and maintain them no matter what the cost might be.
But the candidates proved they have plenty in common. Despite being rivals philosophically, for example, Betty Somerville and John O’Toole have shown great loyalty to their non-political careers, the former as a nurse for 33 years, the latter as a GM employee for 30 years. The public often takes politicians to task for staying too long at the trough of politics; not so with these two.
And while Green Party candidate Edward Yaghledjian is diametrically opposed to Freedom Party David Strutt on the issue of incineration in the region, they both appear to have come to the area for the same reason. Strutt said he and his wife moved here 10 years ago because it seemed to offer the community life they desired.
“My family came to Canada from a war-torn region,” said Yaghledjian, an Armenian immigrant, at Monday night’s debate. “We’ve gone from region to region and have come here to be citizens of an ideal world.”
I am always amazed at the ability politicians (or those seeking an extremely time-consuming political life) possess to juggle public obligations with those private ones in their families. Monday night’s discussion – involving at least two prepared speeches as well as two ad lib open debating sections – demanded that the candidates have a fair command of every manner of issue – from health care to energy policy to the intricacies of the tax system. And that requires preparation, reading and understanding more material than most people can digest. And yet they all talked about their families as if they’d just spent a leisurely dinner at home before attending the debate. Not!
I guess among the most fascinating discoveries about the humanity of our candidates came from some of their personal stories. Early in the evening, when discussion focused on everyday needs, New Democratic candidate James Terry began to address the challenges that ordinary Ontarians face. He alluded to finding and keeping work, stretching pay-cheques from week to week, providing for family members, coping with taxes and getting emergency health care. Then, he suddenly became very personal; he wasn’t about to exclude himself from the picture.
“I’m a survivor of lymphoma cancer,” he pointed out. “If it weren’t for the health-care system in this province, I wouldn’t be sitting here in front of you to speak tonight.”
Not too long after that, as the discussion continued around the survival of small community hospitals, reducing wait-times and the availability of doctors in rural Ontario, candidate Somerville got around to the same kind of admission. She too had survived a bout with cancer in her lifetime. So too, it turned out, had members of John O’Toole’s family. And the compelling nature of each story of survival captivated all of us in the room.
It was during moments of admission such as these that the sharp difference of opinion, partisan rhetoric and the politics of division seemed to disappear. Instead, the bond of human beings in the common struggle for life, superseded any need to debate or land a constituency seat.
I finished the evening by thanking the voters who’d attended, but also by commenting how fortunate this constituency was to have candour and common courtesy as part of the political process.