{"id":355,"date":"2014-04-14T16:45:05","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T20:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/?p=355"},"modified":"2014-11-22T11:21:01","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T16:21:01","slug":"reflections-of-a-retired-journalist-reborn-as-a-social-democrat-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/reflections-of-a-retired-journalist-reborn-as-a-social-democrat-activist\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections of a retired journalist reborn as a social-democrat activist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 By G\u00e9rard Malo<\/h4>\n
\"G\u00e9rard
G\u00e9rard Malo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have been aware and concerned about democratic and social-justice values ever since I first voted, a very long time ago. It was\u00a0in the 1966 Qu\u00e9bec provincial election.<\/a> I’ve been defining myself as a “social democrat” since my young-adult years, which saw me\u00a0canvassing for a then new Qu\u00e9bec political party where most\u00a0progressive people could be found. Of course in 1976, when I\u00a0became a broadcast journalist, I had to end my involvement in\u00a0partisan politics. But throughout my 37 working \u00a0years, 33 at Radio-Canada, I would dream about getting back into active politics once I retired. Well, the dream finally came true on Aug. 2, 2012, the day after I officially retired from CBC\/Radio-Canada. That is when I first joined the New Democratic Party.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Federally, the Windsor, Ont. area where I live has been blessed for the last 14 years with two capable and popular NDP Members of Parliament \u2013 Joe Comartin and Brian Masse. But it was a very different situation at the provincial level. Until last year, and since we last had Ontario NDP<\/a> representation here in the early 90s, the party had not been able to elect anyone in Windsor. The candidates \u00a0were so weak, in my opinion, that progressives like me and many others were compelled to vote for two then-Liberal cabinet ministers.<\/p>\n

Well, I decided to do something about that, if I could help. I gave myself a “personal mission” to persuade Percy Hatfield<\/a> to seek the Windsor-Tecumseh provincial NDP nomination last year. I had\u00a0worked alongside\u00a0Percy at CBC\/Radio-Canada for at least 10 years. \u00a0A well-known local news personality, he was a respected\u00a0Canadian Media Guild\u00a0<\/a>activist.\u00a0In 2006 , after his retirement, Percy became an effective member of the Windsor city council and was re-elected in 2010. To\u00a0my surprise no persuasion was necessary. \u00a0He decided to run in the Aug. 1, 2013 by-election, won the nomination and was elected as our MPP with 62 per cent of the vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the “victory,” in which I played a humble part, left me with a troublesome aftertaste. After weeks of canvassing “to get our vote out,”\u00a0door-to-door and on the phone, after putting up election signs all over the riding, I came to the conclusion that I absolutely hated my new experience in partisan politics. Although I had no appetite for going back to work, I missed the comfort of being an “observer” \u00a0reporting on newsworthy issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Percy
Percy Hatfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In recovering from an illness this past winter, I had a lot of time for reflection during the weeks of convalescence. I even questioned my involvement in politics, wondering \u00a0whether it would be best to put an end to it. But as I got better, my energy came back and I decided to give it another chance, since an Ontario general election could be upon us sooner rather than later. The liberal minority government will fall if the NDP votes down the next budget.<\/a> Yes, I do hate to go around asking people to vote for my candidate, but I have realized that it’s something that must be done, if I want to move my community forward.<\/p>\n

And then, last week, came the dreaded CBC cuts<\/a> announcement.<\/h6>\n

My only comment: I believe more than ever that the time has come to end to the scandalous way that our Canadian governments, Liberal and Conservative alike, continue to\u00a0undermine our proud public broadcaster. The time has come to do whatever is needed to ultimately put out to pasture this ideological <\/a>conservative bunch in office\u00a0who hate almost anything public, especially the CBC.<\/p>\n

For me , whether I like it or not, it means doing my share as an activist within the party that could be the “government in waiting.” I know that it’s a long shot at this point because I’m aware that sometimes the future is accompanied by some sort of disappointment.<\/p>\n

But allow me to choose hope over despair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 By G\u00e9rard Malo I have been aware and concerned about democratic and social-justice values ever since I first voted, a very long time ago. It was\u00a0in the 1966 Qu\u00e9bec provincial election. I’ve been … Continue reading Reflections of a retired journalist reborn as a social-democrat activist<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,10],"tags":[56,59,50,41,61,55,40,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwa-scacanada.ca\/retirees\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}