The Best Prime Minister We Never Had

There are few politicians that I gush over, but Ed Broadbent is one of them. We lost one of the good ones.

I don't like him because he's NDP - there are others in that party who wouldn't get my vote - but because he's principled. I'm even a member of the Broadbent Institute. He would have turned 88 in March. 

When he left politics to care for his wife back in 2006, The Globe and Mail wrote this about his character:

"Farewell, Honest Ed, the best prime minister Canada never had. In an era of contemptuous, mean-spirited public discourse, Mr. Broadbent is an oxymoron--a decent Canadian politician. . . . In his goodbye speech to teh Commons in May, Mr. Broadbent said, 'I have been here for the great debates of my time--on the Constitution; on the national energy program; on the War Measures Act; on the recognition of Japanese Canadians, their place in history and our unpleasant, to put it euphemistically, treatment of them historically. Many debates went to the root of what this country is all about.' He also played his part int he abolition of capital punishment, the great abortion clashes and the recognition of same-sex marriage. . . . He is leaving office without the slightest whiff of scandal. . . . Although 75% of his constituents in Oshawa were for the death penalty, Mr. Broadbent voted for abolition. To sway fellow MPs, he sent each a copy of Albert Camus's passionate 1957 essay, 'Reflections on the Guillotine.' . . . He is convinced that MMPR [mixed member proportional representation] would also civilize a loutish, testosterone-dominated Parliament."

Calling the debates of 2006 "contemptuous, mean-spirited public discourse" seems cute by our standards which have fallen so far so fast. What would have been absolutely shocking back then is now commonplace, greeted with eye-rolls rather than reprimands: rage-farming, supporting the convoy that disturbed or harmed so many lives in Ottawa, intentionally obfuscating facts, and questioning the value of spending money to care for people. Looking back at the things Broadbent did and the way he interacted with people gives us a marker to work towards. 

Catherine McKenna shared this quote of his:

"To be humane, societies must be democratic - and, to be democratic, every person must be afforded the economic and social rights necessary for their individual flourishing. On their own, political and civil freedoms are insufficient in the realization of that goal."

Of course I have to include what may be the most cringe-inducing 60 seconds of your day today. He ran and won in 1968 and then quit in 1988. He was persuaded to run again by Jack Layton in 2004, and here's part of his campaign. He won with this!

I warned you!