Bill's Bulletin Board
By Bill Rea

Saturday was a beautiful day.

It was an ideal day for being outside. And there was lots to do outside. A bunch of guys in Nobleton took part in a ball hockey tournament. Other people in King City were involved in various outdoor sales. And then there were the activities that were not particularly newsworthy, yet fitting for such a day. May is now behind us, and with it the good reasons for not putting the flowers into the ground. Can anyone give me a good reason why Saturday wasn't ideal for such activity? And even if planting wasn't on the agenda, there were still lawns to cut, weeds to pull and maybe some moreinvolved chores to be attended to. Such was certainly the case around my house.

Can anyone argue that Saturday was the ideal day to be spent in the outdoors.

So what was I doing spending the bulk of Saturday in a sweltering school gym in Markham listening in to four worthy people run for the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination in Oak Ridges- Markham, with a lot of mingling in the crowd trying to get some sense of where the trends were heading?

Oh yeah, attending meetings like this was one of the reasons I got into this business. That and the fact that I got sick of waiting on tables.

As near as I could tell, I was the only media person there. I hope that impressed some people. My wife accompanied me. I know she impressed a lot of people, likely at my expense. One of these fine days, someone in King is going to dedicate a church in that woman's name.

Beth was there because I was there. I was there because I love the political intrigue.

Nomination meetings can either be very boring affairs, or very exciting, depending largely on how many people are in the running and how much intrigue and negotiating takes place between the ballots.

This was the first time I had ever seen a hotly contested nomination being fought out in the middle of a heat wave. That may have burned some of the enthusiasm from many of the people on hand. But to my surprise and their credit, many of the people at the meeting stuck it out to the end, and that's certainly a sign of commitment.

It was also the first time I had seen such a large meeting held on a Saturday. One might think people would have better things to do with their time, but the turnout they got sort of puts that argument to rest. Besides, no one would have left early begging that they had to get up early for work the next morning, something that would happen a lot at meetings held during the week.

I attended the federal Conservative nomination meeting for the riding in March. There were three people seeking the nomination at that session, and the issue was decided with the preferential ballot, meaning the voters were asked to list their first and second choices. I was a little surprised and quite pleased to see that method was not used Saturday. I would love to see elections settled with a preferential ballot, as opposed to the current system we have, or proportional representation or that combination method they're proposing for Ontario. But when it comes to conventions to pick nominees, I like seeing the separate ballots.

I understand why they don't announce the number of votes each candidate gets at such meetings. The party organizers are trying to avoid friction within the ranks between different factions. But I don't approve. As a voter in an election, I want and expect to be informed of the number of votes each candidate receives. Without hard data, how can I know that the results are legitimate? And in the interests of openness and transparency (something political parties have been preaching about a lot over the last couple of years), one would think they would want to be as above-board as possible.

But I'm digressing.

Having the separate ballots allows for lobbying, coercion, maybe a bit of pressure and lots of drama and excitement. Barely had the field for the second ballot been announced that I overheard two officials for one of the candidates' campaigns talking strategy. One of them boldly announced there were no irrelevant votes in the room.

Perhaps it's the journalist in me that makes these statements, but I am referring to one of the more enjoyable and entertaining parts of the political process. And since a lot of this effort is carried out in open air, I see it as very fair and democratic.

The day had a few surprises for me.

I went into the meeting thinking Sue Sherban probably had an edge, which goes to show just how much I knew going in. I also figured Gayani Weerasinghe would be very strong. I didn't think a whole lot of Phil Bannon's chances, but that was before I learned that he had sold more party memberships than any of his rivals. That's a crucial factor, and it's not the first time I've seen that make the difference in such meetings.

I though the speeches were pretty entertaining, although Sherban disappointed me. In fairness, she opened by saying there had been misinformation spread about her and she wanted to correct things fast. There's considerable justification for that, but she came off sounding angry, and that's not the way to sway undecideds. With her experience, I would have thought she could have handled things better.

I thought the best speech came from D'Arcy Pigott. I suspect he realized he was likely to finish last in the field of four (he did), and that sometimes prompts people to go for broke and try and excite the crowd. To his credit, I thought he was low-key and almost conversational. If I had had a vote in that meeting, and assuming I had gone in their without any allegiances, I think Pigott would have been my choice on the first ballot.

I didn't have a vote, and I don't have any allegiances, at least not yet.

I've only known Bannon a matter of days, and he and I have conversed for maybe five minutes. He's got some political experience (he's deputy mayor of Whitchurch- Stouffville), he speaks well and he can obviously rally supporters, as demonstrated by the fact he only entered the race a couple of weeks ago.

But we've still got some time before the next provincial election. We still have to see who the other parties are going to put up to run against Bannon. We also have to see what the various party leaders are going to do in the coming campaign. And we've got to see what the electorate wants.

A Saturday afternoon of entertaining political intrigue does not an election make.

And just so you don't get the idea the Saturday was completely wasted, I cut my lawn when I got home.