There are times a picture is worth a thousand words ? although a columnist who uses words to make a living may be reluctant to admit it.
This was the case when a Progressive Conservative aide spotted an Ontario Liberal cabinet minister outside a company in which he has a financial interest and photographed him. He knew ministers are not supposed to be involved in businesses, because they make decisions that affect them.
The picture prompted an investigation by the integrity commissioner, who found Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar broke another rule, because he appointed a friend to manage his assets in a blind trust instead of the required arm?s length manager. This has shaken Premier Dalton McGuinty?s
government and would not have happened without the picture as proof.
It now goes in a small gallery of memorable pictures in Ontario politics. One memorable picture was of premier Mike Harris golfing in Florida in baggy shorts, cigar jutting from his lips, flag in one hand, club resting against his leg, prominent paunch and looking every inch a bloated plutocrat living off the fat of the land. It fuelled talk Harris lived in comfort after slashing welfare benefits. It also relaid the message that he stayed away from his office while
concerns were not dealt with and Ontarians struggled in the cold.
A most famous photograph of long-serving Conservative premier William Davis showed him descending the steps in the forum at Ontario Place, after his party chose him leader and premier, transformed from small town to big city looks with trendy flowing sideburns and double-breasted suit.
Davis liked the picture so much he used it as the centerpiece of an election campaign, but his close aide pictured with him, David MacLeod, was not mentioned. He left government quietly after being convicted of indecent assault, went to the United States, was charged there with similar offences, disappeared, and was put on the FBI?s most wanted list. He was later found dead on a frigid Montreal street.
The most famous and influential political pictures taken in Ontario were in a federal election three decades ago, but are worth noting because the full stories behind them emerged only a couple of weeks ago. They showed federal Conservative leader Robert Stanfield dropping a football in North Bay and eating a banana in Toronto. This made him look fumbling and unstatesmanlike. TV crews had already snapped Stanfield eating a banana and newspaper photographers missed it, so the news agency sent a photographer with a banana to catch him at the airport. Stanfield graciously peeled and ate it while he took his picture, which showed him warm and patient. Pictures tell the truth, but not always the whole truth.
