A SECOND SHOT

OAnonymous has left a new comment on your post "FUNNY IS NOT SILLY": 

Another great post Evelyn! 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 30 September 2017 at 09:30

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Thank you. 

When posting every day,I hardly stopped to wonder. I knew the blog had readers because town business was the topic and I was a Councillor and I heard.

Now I tend town affairs  as observer. .. more  or less. Council activity is more social than political and frankly my dear, I can't get excited about hthat. I am at risk of saying stuff that doesn't need to be said. 

Commenting on Facebook is easier, lazier and less time-consuming. The question is one of interest in 

random topics offered sporadically . But writing will always be my challenge and the lure lingers.

 I wrote this post before and lost it. I haven't done that for a while but the thought still waits to be expressed. 

Jagmeet Singh leadership win of the New Democratic Party caught my attention. Toronto Star reported his intent is to be elected Prime Minister of Canada but not to win a seat immediately. 

Instead he plans to travel Canada and talk to Canadians about his culture. 

MP Elizabeth May congratulated him on his win and informed him Prime Ministers are not elected in 

Canada. 

 A couple of days later, the NDP caucus in Ottawa gave Mr Singh a "hero's" welcome. His  was a first ballot victory over candidates with background and experience. 

My first reaction to the news of Mr. Singh's plans to talk to Canadians about his culture was ...well really...not exactly what Canadians need to hear. I thought of Patrick Brown and how he won the Ontario Conservative leadership vote. By buying and selling votes. Same thing with Singh.

Patrick Brown isn't looking too comfy right now.

This morning I wakened with the name Michael Ignatieff in my head. He was a one -time Liberal leader who never became Prime Minister. The Liberals hoped a re-incarnation of Pierre Elliott Trudeau would do the trick. After the election he wrote a tell-all book and confessed he didn't realize until the night before, the election was not all about him. It was about the people. They were hoping  for someone who would make their lives better. 

Being an academic, he took his time to think about that. 

Now here we go again, different party, same vacuous thought, with a bright-eyed young Sikh 

In  a tall,towering,turban in  a variety of vivid hues,ready to travel the country to talk to 

Canadians about HIS culture. 

While he's at it, probably seeking out an NDP member, ready and willing to step aside from a 

hard-fought  "safe"  NDP seat. 

Somebody stepped aside from a rock-solid seat in Ontario a few years ago for John Tory. Conservatives succeeded in losing a fail-safe bet.  

What surprises me,and not much does any more, is the single  factor consistently left out of all

political calculations,  is the way ordinary people FEEL  about their vote. 

It matters to them. 

They will not be told how to vote nor will they reveal their true intention. 

But it doesn't matter anyway. Jagmeet Singh could  never buy and sell enough memberships

to garner enough votes to win that battle. 

However heroic the NDP caucus believes his victory was ,it's likely to be the last. 

They were lying in their teeth. 

The NDP are no longer  simply irrelevant. 

They've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.