The Politics of Negativity

I have never been one to sit back and take it on the chin.  A personal attack, regardless of the medium, has always been one of those things that just irks me.  Generally speaking, people lash out irrationally and I am baffled by it.  However, I have grown a thicker skin in recent weeks.

Over this campaign I have noticed that when the Ottawa Sun or Ottawa Citizen post an article online people respond with some awfully spiteful comments about the candidates.  I have also noticed that whenever Clive Doucet encounters some of these remarks, he simply shrugs them off and continues forward.  He realizes that there are people who simply do not understand him or that people may not “like him”.  I personally do not understand the concept of disliking someone without actually knowing them, but I can dislike their policies.  Example: I do not know Larry O’Brien, but I dislike his policies.  Equally, I do not dislike Jim Watson now that I have met him, but I do not like a lot of his platform.  I am sure his team feels the same way about me as well.  All is fair in politics.

There are five common remarks about Clive Doucet and his bid to become mayor that I find problematic.  The first is that Clive is dead last, in the single digits, as of the only poll to come out in weeks.  Yes, he was according to that poll, but that poll was clearly commissioned by an interest group (I’m looking at you Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group) that would stand to benefit from it.  It was not done scientifically let alone ethically.  If you have yet to read about it, please check my post on the Holinshed Poll here. 

We know that this poll is likely inaccurate because the campaign is all over the internet like a rabid spider monkey and the on-ground canvasing is turning up positive results.  Is he behind?  Likely, but he is also likely gaining and gaining fast.  O’Brien has basically tanked and that has become clear from attack ads and push-polling techniques.  Now with that in mind, people are saying they’re less likely to vote for Watson (seeing through his platform as nothing less than undermining democracy and similar to O’Brien’s).  More interesting, people are saying they will vote for Doucet now because it is clear a vote for Doucet is not a vote for O’Brien.  Not even remotely close.  Four years ago we Ottawans made a huge error in splitting the vote.  With 15% of the vote going to Chiarelli, O’Brien (47%) was able to beat Alex Munter (36%).  A lot of that election had to do with the conservative nature of Ottawa. We were clearly not in favour of electing an inexperienced businessman, but also did not approve of Munter (point of fact: I voted for Munter.  He was the right choice).  This election, people can be less afraid of electing in O’Brien and draw a battle-line between Watson and Doucet to take this election to the end.

What about these comments and the politics of negativity?

The remark I see an awful lot of is that Clive Doucet is a “crybaby”.  To show any sort of emotion other than rage for men in western society is somehow shameful.  It is better to come off as some sort of idiot who cannot contain their anger than it is to wipe a tear after a hard fought battle lost.  Especially when that battle was lost specifically because the city was more than willing to bend to the will of the money rather than that of the people.

How about Clive Doucet is a Glebe-centric candidate?  This links to the previous “crybaby” remark because the one issue everyone still remembers in the sole-sourcing redevelopment of Lansdowne Park.  I will not get into it, but you can read another one of my posts here on the matter.  However, there is no way Clive Doucet is focused on one neighbourhood.  His transit plan links the city suburbs together to the hub as a means to release pressure on the 417 and through the core.  He wants to build a food terminal so that our farmers in rural Ottawa can sell their goods at competitive rates here in Ottawa, not ship them to Toronto and Montreal first.  He wants to stimulate the arts and culture communities, increase tourism and see the city benefit from the economic payoff there of; this includes all communities!  People who lean on the remark that Clive Doucet is Glebe-centric are simply unaware of his campaign platform. Neither Watson or O’Brien have any aim to help suburban Ottawa let alone rural Ottawa.  Both want a tunnel under downtown and that does not fix anything but possibly downtown issues.  O’Brien wants a ring road which goes around Ottawa, but again, does not help the suburbs.

“Clive Doucet will spend, spend, spend and raise taxes for it!”  Really?  On the fiscal part of the platform he refuses to peg a number on taxes and wants to keep it to inflationary rates.  Of all the campaigns, Clive Doucet has promised the most frugal tax initiative of them all.  The spend, spend, spend theory is sound, but the money is not coming from the wallet of the citizen.  There is a lot of money to be spent around the city without the tunnel and LRT (as proven by 13,600+ riders a day on the O-Train) can and will make money for the city.  This theory and fear of spending in Ottawa sincerely has to stop.  The City of Ottawa has a dismal spending record over the last decade and Clive Doucet is insisting on a restructuring of how business is run.  He is not pitching blowing open the coffers and let the city go further into debt, but rather to pull it out of debt by its own accord through stimulation.  Overall, Watson is looking at 2.5% ceiling on taxes and O’Brien gave Ottawa a 0 means 14% increase over four years.  Both of them want to invest in a project to nowhere and will cost tax payers money to do and maintain.

Overall, my favourite comment I read time and time again is how Clive Doucet “helped his son get the job at OC Transpo”.  Well, first off, Julian Doucet is not employed by OC Transpo per se.  He won a double blind competition to be the voice that calls out the buses stops so that OC Transpo drivers were not required to use the already installed microphone on their bus.  It is, of course, no shock I thought we wasted money on the system when a driver can do it, but then we get into the whole debate about understanding each driver as well as bilingual service.  In the long run I abandoned the argument and accepted that Julian Doucet’s voice work was just a better option.  Did Clive Doucet get his son the job?  No.  Not convinced?

Doucet's Rant from Myke on Vimeo.

Overall, the politics of negativity in Ottawa is baffling. This is not a matter of xenophobia, but rather a simple case of ignorance.  Some people are not afraid of Clive Doucet, they simply have not taken the time to be informed.  It is, however, unfortunate that some of these people are lashing out irrationally on the Ottawa Sun and Ottawa Citizen websites with little to no moderation for their remarks.

W.