BRYAN PATERSON WANTS A NEW JOB

So surprise surprise,  Kingston’s mayor, Bryan Paterson, another right-wing politician with a fondness for the camera and a reflexive dislike of the unhoused, wants to represent the Conservatives in the next federal election. He’s excited, he says (and if the press photos of his announcement get-together are anything to go by, a roomful of middle-aged, mostly male business people is excited too). “We are going to get to work,” he promises, “and we’re going to build a big blue tent. And let me tell you something, there’s room for everyone.”

I don’t know if it’s occurred to Mr. Paterson yet that thanks to his own by-law enforcement efforts, if he erects that tent in Kingston he’s going to have to pull it down every morning before sunrise, and stash it somewhere until one hour before sunset. That seems a mighty inefficient (not to mention cold and inhumane) way to run a campaign. A friend of mine wondered quite reasonably this morning whether the tent might even be made from “a blue tarp stolen from the homeless”.

Setting out his plans further, Paterson explained that if he wins the nomination he’ll take a leave of absence from City Hall in order to campaign. It sounds as if he’ll quit as mayor if he wins a seat in the election, but return to his present job if he loses (presumably to push a bit harder for the soccer pitch and dome on the Memorial Centre’s community green space). I can’t be the only one who finds the self-serving arrogance of such schemes hard to stomach.

Paterson’s ambitions are no surprise, and nor are his obnoxious, money-centred politics. It seems that in nearly every election the world over these days, the least compassionate candidate rises to the top. I’ve never understood (while also, I think, understanding full well) why we tend to vote in such numbers for people who want so much to scare us, and to have us regard our neighbours and friends (particularly if they’re poor) as the real roadblocks to our success. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, we can buck that trend in Kingston this year.

(Registered nurse, educator, and social justice advocate Daria Juüdi-Hope is the NDP candidate, by the way, and chances are good you don’t know much about her yet. Here’s a link to her page. Let’s hope she gets equal time in the campaign.