If I Had a Ballot
December 5, 2024
The race to become the CPC nominee here in St. Catharines is heating up. In less than a week’s time, around 1,500 members will make their decision as to who among the four candidates will be carrying the party’s banner in the next federal election. The stakes are high. This is a swing riding that figures to turn blue, so the successful candidate is likely to become our next MP.
Loyal readers are well aware that I am not among the 1,500 who will be casting a ballot, though I remain no less interested in the process. If I had a ballot, it might have been a toss-up between Bas Sluijmers and Greg Gillespie as to who my top choice would have been. But since I’m told that Greg didn’t make it through the interview process, that leaves Bas. And only Bas.
Loyal readers also know why I would not have considered voting for Peter Secord or Hayden Lawrence. That goes for both the nomination and the general election, should either one emerge victorious from this process. In such a case, I would likely become a first-time PPC voter. I’m done with voting for Liberals of a different color.
Now let me tell you why I wouldn’t have voted for Kim Schwenker either.
A couple of weeks ago, after reading my blog, Kim reached out and sought an audience with me. I took the bait.
Just as I found when I had met her twice previously, she was indeed a very nice person. I believe her when she said she’s honorably motivated and in it for the right reasons. And her passion came though loud and clear.
Coming in, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this meeting, though I did surmise that at least part of it would include her trying to sell me on why she thinks she’s the best candidate. Perhaps she hoped I would write something favorable about her. After all, my postings on this nomination race have been generating a lot of traffic. From there, I figured we’d have a discussion on federal and even municipal politics, as the two of us had been at a recent city budget open house, where an animated discussion took place with Councilor Carlos Garcia.
Instead, I was treated to an epic monologue that lasted nearly two and a half hours.
The writer in me found it all very interesting, in an off-color sort of way. These are the kind of things I seek out. Usually on public transit, coffee shops or in shopping malls. Or even around the neighborhood. The comings and goings of a guy across the street could make a book in itself. In her recent email to party members, she said she was an open book. “I always tell it as it is,” she said. Indeed, truer words were never spoken. The voter in me, however, grew increasingly turned off with every passing hour. For the life of me, I couldn’t possibly understand her thought process. Let me get a hold of this blogger and I’ll bend his ear for two and a half hours, then I’m sure he’ll go running to his keyboard to sing my praises.
Uh, not exactly.
During the monologue, she asked me if I was getting bored yet. I shrugged my shoulders. What I should have asked was “Does it matter?” Because clearly it didn’t, as she just kept on going.
Not that I disagreed with most of what she said, mind you. I think we are mostly aligned on a lot of issues. One notable exception was that she thought we need to do government better, whereas I think we need less of it since government is the cause of most of our problems. But as time went on, I thought the other people in the coffee shop were going to start dropping off sympathy cards for me. The next time I go back, there might indeed be a collection stuffed in a bag with my name on it. Maybe with some gift wrapping and a bow tie. To Curtis from Santa.
As she said in her recent email to voters, she has her finger on the pulse of what our community needs/wants. But that doesn’t mean you ignore and talk over voters and would-be constituents. She needs to learn to engage them. Talk to them. Not talk at them.
Coming into that meeting, she wouldn’t have been my first choice. Not even my second. I was on the fence as to whether she’d make my ballot at all. Regardless of her position on the issues, I didn’t think she had what it took. But somewhere during those two and a half hours, she definitely talked her way off that ballot completely.
I sincerely hope she takes these comments constructively. I think she is a good person and I applaud her for putting her name forward as a candidate.
I just won’t be supporting her.
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