Passing the torch
When Thomas Mulcair won Montreal's Outremont riding for the NDP on Monday, there was a victory celebration taking place a long, long way away.
Phil Edmonston, the one-time consumer advocate who won the party's only other Quebec seat back in 1990, was keeping track of the results from Panama via the internet.
Best known for his Lemon-Aid series of car-buying guidebooks, Edmonston is also a former U.S. Army medic who now does volunteer work in Panama City.
He says he's happy for Mulcair, a former provincial Liberal, who he credits with having "political experience, integrity and a good working team." But he has a word of warning for the NDP: don't get your hopes too high.
"I think we read too much into this if we say one seat in Outremont, just as in my case, one seat in Chambly, means that the NDP is going to be the party that's going to take all the marbles in the next election. There's a lot of work that has to be done."
Edmonston's advice for growing the party in Quebec: "Go for the radical middle. Stay away from the crazies, the one-issue candidates or the people who have agendas that are not really agendas mainstream, average Canadians can identify with."
About the Authors
- Rosemary Barton started her television career reporting from Quebec City where she covered the ins and outs of Quebec politics. She moved to the CBC Parliamentary Bureau in 2007. She also stood on the side of road awaiting U.S. President Barack Obama's motorcade for hours in the cold. When she finally spotted him, all of Canada heard her shriek, "I saw him!"
- Alison Crawford worked in Fredericton, Calgary and Winnipeg before returning to her hometown to work in the CBC parliamentary bureau. Her beats include the RCMP, justice, public safety and the Liberals. Alison credits her investigative skills as well as a national etiquette column and coverage of a ferret Christmas party, with having prepared her for covering national politics.
- Andrew Davidson is a producer for the CBC politics page in Toronto. He joined CBCNews.ca's national desk in 2006 and was the lead news writer for the website's 2008 federal election coverage.
- Chris Hall is the National Affairs Editor for CBC News. He's been a member of the CBC Parliamentary Bureau since 1998. That adds up to 11 budgets, four elections, three prime ministers and too many confidence votes to count. Chris started his career in print before moving to the CBC in 1992. Since then, he's worked in Toronto, Halifax and St. John's, as well as Ottawa.
- Leslie MacKinnon Leslie's been working in news and current affairs since newsrooms used teletype, televison was shot on film and radio tape was edited with a razor blade. She saw through The Journal's long run on CBC-TV, and since then has worked in Halifax, Toronto and Ottawa in the CBC's various permutations. Right now, she's a TV news reporter in the political bureau, and likes certain parts of Ottawa - the canal, the Hill - a lot.
- Janyce McGregor has been a television producer in the CBC's Parliamentary Bureau since 2001. She started her career working for Studio 2 on TVOntario. In 2005 her then-doctoral student husband persuaded her to follow him to the U.K., where she worked for BBC World Service Radio in London. Janyce is originally a farm girl from southwestern Ontario. Her most important job title is "Norah's Mom."
- Chris Rands has been a member of the Parliamentary bureau since 2001. He started at Toronto's AM Radio giant CFRB before moving to CBC's National Radio News in 1996. Chris has worked in Toronto, Moncton, Sudbury, Regina, Washington and St John's. Every time Chris walks up to the Peace Tower, he wants to throw his hat in the air like Mary Tyler Moore.
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