Posted by Sudbury Northern Life
Toronto — Ontarians are lamenting they have no orators as spellbinding as Barack Obama, but they did, and are not making them any more.
Listen to Elmer Sopha, a Liberal MPP in the 1960s, describing the often pointless debates and routines that take up too much of the legislature’s time then and now: “One thing that bothers me is the pretense we engage in that is not worthy of reasonable adults – the sham, artificiality, mythology, fiction, trappings and antiques we surround ourselves with.
“It separates us by a wide gulf from the people and creates a lack of relevance and I am desperately afraid the gulf will ever widen so advanced opinion or enlightened thought in the electorate will get too far ahead of its elected representatives.”
Or Sopha’s criticisms on the opening of legislature sessions, describing how the lieutenant-governor and his spouse “risked pneumonia in an open horse-drawn carriage, covered only by a buffalo blanket, while cabinet ministers stayed in their warm offices and peeked from behind curtains.
“When they finally got here, accompanied by enough military to settle the problem in Vietnam, the lieutenant-governor finally proceeded to read the speech from the throne with all the eloquence of a chloroform pad, while former premier Leslie Frost fell asleep – let us get rid of all this sham.”
Lieutenant-governors no longer ride in horse-drawn carriages, but still read the speech, which is misleading, because it is written by the premier and his political advisers.
Hear Stephen Lewis, when he was New Democratic Party leader, contributing to a debate on national unity: “This country has majesty and vitality to compare with any and holds together on a bedrock of two founding cultures, supplemented by those who already were here and so many additional peoples of so many origins, weaving a lattice-work of artistry, science, language, music, stability and joe de vivre. As long as I have energy and voice, I shall strive to keep our Canada together.”
When Lewis retired, he took a more charitable view of the legislature that still was apt, saying it “has moments of disintegration, when the democratic process seems to have been forged at the anvil of anarchy and our mellifluous and lovely English language is reduced to guttural snapping, and I sometimes had to slide a nitroglycerin tablet over to a colleague to reduce his palpitations under the provocation.
“But this motley rabble sometimes has been followed by splendid debate and the strength of the parliamentary system reasserted. I am proud to have been a part of that and never doubted for a moment politics can be a profoundly noble profession.”
Bob Rae, when he was NDP premier and urging the Constitution be changed to strengthen national unity, said “all of history teaches, and recent world events confirm, that states are fragile and have to be nurtured and renewed and sometimes changed significantly if they are to adapt and survive and prosper. We must never stop adapting to new ideas, new social forces and new economic conditions.’
Why does the legislature no longer have great orators?
Rae has since shown his ability to adapt by becoming a Liberal MP and future cabinet minister, if his federal party gets elected.
The legislature’s last great orator was Liberal Sean Conway, who suggested the circuitous speaking of Progressive Conservative premier William Davis was “like the route of the old Colonial Railway, which twisted and turned, chugged uphill and down dale and meandered through the remotest sidings before eventually reaching its destination.”
Why does the legislature no longer have great orators? Reasons include most parents permit their children to watch TV, where language often is banal, rather than encourage them to read. Families are less prone to sit and talk together. Schools teach students the rudiments of language, but do not inspire them to relish it.
Newspapers report the facts they think matter and oratory only in rare cases, where it influences events, such as Obama’s, and above all, TV wants politicians to speak in 10-second clips. None of this nurtures great oratory.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen’s Park press gallery.
