Month: June 2023

To earn a second chance, to even try for it, you must be a fighter. You need to be able to pick yourself off the mat and say, “I still have something to give.”

From bitter defeat in 2014, to this moment, where — at the time of writing — Olivia Chow sure looks like she has this race all locked up.

For some, it will be sweet vengeance: a result that is long overdue in a city that has kept too many out for far too long.

For others, her life in public service has left trails that stoke fear and anxiety — to put it mildly.

No matter how you feel, you cannot argue with the fact that if Ms. Chow does indeed win, hers will be a political comeback of astonishing personal satisfaction.

But beyond personal victory, what do these stories, these second acts, represent about our political life? Are they a lazy thing, betraying an electoral lethargy — that we’ll tick a box for the name we know just because we know it? Or do they reveal some essential generosity — our understanding that people don’t always get things right the first time out and may have something new, different and enriched the second time around?

I vote for the latter. Here’s why.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives.” But it isn’t true. Nor is it true north of the border.

Let’s remember the man Chow is destined to replace. In 2003, John Tory lost a squeaker of a mayoral race to David Miller. He later lost a devastating election for premier in 2007 and then a byelection in 2009.

Pundits quickly dug his political grave. Yet, lo and behold, seven years later he was elected mayor of Canada’s largest city, defeating both Chow and Doug Ford in the process. The comeback kid went on to establish himself as one of the most electable politicians in the country, winning three decisive campaigns for mayor.

When we zoom out from the heated campaign battles and look at the context of much longer public service careers, we can appreciate just what an extraordinary achievement these comebacks are.

We all lose in different ways — large and small — every day. But few lose on so grand a stage as those in politics. To earn a second chance, to even try for it, you must be a fighter. You need to be able to pick yourself off the mat and say, “I still have something to give.”

And that is far from easy. But there’s something compelling about those who’ve been knocked down. A resilience. A wisdom. A tenacity.

If you win in politics, your opponents will always say (as will Chow’s) that it was just a matter of lucky timing. But that charge is severely diminished when you’ve risen from the depths of defeat to meet that moment. So the truth is that not only are few politicians granted such an opportunity by the electorate, fewer still have the stomach for it.

In this respect, Chow’s (likely successful) mayoral campaign has two vital take-aways. The first is along gendered lines. In her captivating book “No Second Chances,” Kate Graham explores how female politicians are often handed a poisoned chalice and are subjected to double standards, which result in infrequent re-elections.

Chow, unquestionably, fits the first half of this mould — Toronto is in chaos. Only time will tell what the 2026 election will bring. Sadly, in the meantime, one thing’s for certain: Chow will undoubtedly continue to face racism and misogyny as she goes about her work. Of these twin evils, we must be vigilantly opposed.

The second implication of her potential victory is what it says about the state of our democracy. Here, many are worried about our institutions. But I’m most concerned about what holds those institutions up — people.

Second acts, the acceptance that yes, good people can make mistakes, lose at the ballot box and yet can still contribute, make things rights and regain elected office, are signs of hope in an otherwise hopeless time. And they’re just the kind we need now more than ever. So I hope you can find a little inspiration in this, the power of second acts.

This article first appeared in the Toronto Star on June 25, 2023.

In my new book, and in this column, I revisit some of my opinions. In the case of governments picking winners, the price is proving to be too steep.

No matter what readers have to tell me, I always appreciate — and learn from — your feedback on this column. I get letters and emails and comments and tweets. Hell, if you know my number, I even get your calls.

Reactions vary. Some express love, others hate. I welcome both.

Why? Because that old saying is right: feedback is the breakfast of champions. And my readers have provided me with a steady diet that’s sometimes delicious, other times devastating. But it’s this experience, being held accountable for what I write, that gave me the inspiration for my first book, “What I Wish I Said.”

In it, I take 48 columns I’ve written in this space over the past six-plus years and write a rejoinder to each. In some cases, I claim I got it right. In others, I find I came close, but missed a crucial insight. But in many, I admit I got it wrong. Dead wrong.

It’s these reflections that I found most rewarding. For one thing, I got a second kick at the can. But, more importantly, I got a chance to closely examine not only what I got wrong by why and how. This kind of reflective exercise has made me a stronger writer, but it’s also made me more eager, more willing, to underline my misfires and to declare — with the benefit of hindsight — what I wish I’d said.

And wouldn’t you know it, this week provides just such an occasion.

In March, I wrote that the traditionally conservative wisdom that government should not pick winners no longer held up in our new, post-Inflation Reduction Act, reality. So, just as I do in the book, let me clear the air: I got it wrong. And here’s why.

Recent developments from Canada’s negotiation with Stellantis over the development of an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Windsor have revealed that there’s more to this wisdom than meets the eye. Unfortunately, I utterly failed to capture it.

As of now, the feds have made a new offer to Stellantis to keep that battery plant north of the border. That’s after Stellantis halted construction in May, threatening to move the plant to the U.S. unless we ponied up even more cash to match American subsidies.

It’s hardly an earth-shattering prediction to remark that if this deal comes through it will have more zeros than many Canadians are comfortable with.

That’s because when the numbers are crunched on the dollars-spent-per-jobs created, many will think the deal makes no sense. In fact, many would say: just cut these workers a cheque for their lifetime salary — it would be cheaper!

Now those who would support the transaction — after all Canada does have a strong opportunity in this emerging industry — still must deal with this reality: government forking over billions of dollars to private industry (and quite a small subset of it) is not an easy sell to average voters struggling to put food on the table.

And that’s precisely where this conservative insight that governments should refrain from picking winners comes back into play.

The uncomfortable reality for governments is that when they pick winners, those winners will use all the leverage they have to make even greater gains, to exploit their anointed status, not for the good of all Canadians, but the narrow interest of their stakeholders.

That might just be the price of doing business, but that price has a way of spiralling out of control when the government is negotiating with its cards face up. Make no mistake: Stellantis knows that neither the Trudeau nor Ford government is willing to lose precious seats in the Windsor region. They know they’ve made myriad promises to voters about Canada’s future economy they cannot afford to reverse.

The clearest market signal that Canada is emitting nowadays is not that we’re the new and natural hub for EV manufacturing and minerals mining, but rather that we’re willing to pay practically any price to be that hub.

One must wonder what the political consequences will be as that price is driven increasingly higher.

This article first appeared in the Toronto Star on June 12, 2023.