Preface: Typos, they'll happen on cold and flu pills trying not to fall over dead. Please keep that in mind.
There will be someone out there that thinks I am simply awestruck or that I am Clive Doucet's #1 fan. Before I set out to volunteer with his campaign office I simply did not know what to think of hin. I knew his record, I knew his passions, but I saw him as a bit of an odd choice for mayor. I actually had an argument with a friend about how his vision seemed limited – yes, like a lot of you, I jumped on the Lansdowne failure band waggon and initially wrote him off. However, I sat down and went over his platform and I got to know that inside and out. It does not hurt one's chances if they are also considered an underdog; I tend to favour the long shot. Yet, I did not know the man.
I am about to ask you to do something that I dare say is impossible for most at this time in the campaign; forget everything you know about Clive Doucet. Forget about his 13 years as a councillor; about how up until Lansdowne Park he had rarely (if ever) lost a battle in Capital Ward to a developer; that he is a steadfast environmentalist; even forget that he is running for the mayor’s chain. Forget it all. Clive Doucet, above everything we have just forgotten about him, is a solid and decent human being. Do not mistake this as an attempt to say the "other guys" are not, but rather that Clive is simply and otherwise better.
Clive let me tag along on Saturday, October 2nd and get a feel for the campaign trail. He warned me that it was a go-go-go pace and he wasn’t kidding. I woke at 7am, spent two and a half hours doing my job for the campaign and then we met up at 10am for Big Wheels, an event at Counterpointe branch of the Ottawa Public Library and it was great to see how he worked a crowd. He handed out nearly a hundred pamphlets and fifty or so bookmarks to kids. His connection to not only local people (English or French) and the professionals volunteering their time and equipment for all was amazing. But, our time there was short and soon we were at city hall dancing to a choir. Funny thing is, on the drive there, Clive and I spoke about community and connectedness, yet while he danced with a friend I kept wondering who she was and why she looked familiar. I’ll get back to this a bit later. Clive spoke briefly about nuclear weapons damage countries, but destroy cities and the risk they pose just to have them and then chatted with some of the attendees for the event.
A brief stop at the Doucet household and a glimpse into the modest trappings of Clive and his wife Pat made me realize that all the rabble about him being a Glebe "well-off snob" was unfounded. Sure, Clive lives in the Glebe, but his home could be the home of any one of us. The opulence that some people believe Clive exudes simply was not there. For lunch we had crepes, the same recipe he attempted on /A\ Morning Ottawa, but without the difficulty with the stove. Before we left Pat came home and showed us the Ottawa Sun insert about the People’s Choice Man of the Year cover with Clive standing in a tux and that set the tone for the afternoon.
Blackburn Hamlet was quiet – the drive there not so much, we told a lot of jokes and stories – but we enjoyed the end of a hockey game and some amazing potato salad for the 20th anniversary of community housing luncheon. It was my first chance to answer questions about my job with Clive and why I was following him. More or less, for the same reason I am writing this blog; to offer insight to who he is. Clive, meanwhile, chatted with the people, held a newborn infant and answered questions on transit. Soon, as in all cases, we were on the road again and this time out to Metcalfe for the Metcalfe Fair.
We ran into Jim Watson twice at the fair. He was decent to us, came with two aids who were both dressed nicely and we generally gave one another space. Clive was fantastic in the thick crowd at the fair and spent a great lot of time in the midway. Clive’s family was also at the fair and I had the chance to watch him step away from the campaign and ride the carousel with two of his grand children. It hit me then that this campaign was not about Clive, Jim, Andy or Larry – or the others, sorry gentleman and lady – but rather about those kids giggling and laughing with their grandpa. This campaign would dictate the tone for their generation and how they would either live in our successes or be cleaning up after our failures. But, before we left, Jim Watson had a moment to grandstand with a $200 donation to the United Way and an open mic to talk about his platform. Clive responded with a $250 donation and the open mic ... Rather than talk politics he called out to his grand kids to let them hear him saying he loves them; cheesy or not, I was touched.
We reluctantly left the fair and headed back to town. Sitting in the back seat we answered a couple of questions over Twitter on my iPhone and then made it in time for the Open House. CTV-Ottawa filmed him talking about Tweet-street and then we got to talking politics with people who came in. I could tell that by the end of the day Clive was in need of a nap; I wanted to be in a coma. We separated ways for a couple of hours, but met back up at Zaphods where Clive was dancing again, looking full of energy and life while the campaign volunteers unwound with good drink and better music.
There will be someone out there that thinks I am simply awestruck or that I am Clive Doucet's #1 fan. Before I set out to volunteer with his campaign office I simply did not know what to think of hin. I knew his record, I knew his passions, but I saw him as a bit of an odd choice for mayor. I actually had an argument with a friend about how his vision seemed limited – yes, like a lot of you, I jumped on the Lansdowne failure band waggon and initially wrote him off. However, I sat down and went over his platform and I got to know that inside and out. It does not hurt one's chances if they are also considered an underdog; I tend to favour the long shot. Yet, I did not know the man.
I am about to ask you to do something that I dare say is impossible for most at this time in the campaign; forget everything you know about Clive Doucet. Forget about his 13 years as a councillor; about how up until Lansdowne Park he had rarely (if ever) lost a battle in Capital Ward to a developer; that he is a steadfast environmentalist; even forget that he is running for the mayor’s chain. Forget it all. Clive Doucet, above everything we have just forgotten about him, is a solid and decent human being. Do not mistake this as an attempt to say the "other guys" are not, but rather that Clive is simply and otherwise better.
Clive let me tag along on Saturday, October 2nd and get a feel for the campaign trail. He warned me that it was a go-go-go pace and he wasn’t kidding. I woke at 7am, spent two and a half hours doing my job for the campaign and then we met up at 10am for Big Wheels, an event at Counterpointe branch of the Ottawa Public Library and it was great to see how he worked a crowd. He handed out nearly a hundred pamphlets and fifty or so bookmarks to kids. His connection to not only local people (English or French) and the professionals volunteering their time and equipment for all was amazing. But, our time there was short and soon we were at city hall dancing to a choir. Funny thing is, on the drive there, Clive and I spoke about community and connectedness, yet while he danced with a friend I kept wondering who she was and why she looked familiar. I’ll get back to this a bit later. Clive spoke briefly about nuclear weapons damage countries, but destroy cities and the risk they pose just to have them and then chatted with some of the attendees for the event.
A brief stop at the Doucet household and a glimpse into the modest trappings of Clive and his wife Pat made me realize that all the rabble about him being a Glebe "well-off snob" was unfounded. Sure, Clive lives in the Glebe, but his home could be the home of any one of us. The opulence that some people believe Clive exudes simply was not there. For lunch we had crepes, the same recipe he attempted on /A\ Morning Ottawa, but without the difficulty with the stove. Before we left Pat came home and showed us the Ottawa Sun insert about the People’s Choice Man of the Year cover with Clive standing in a tux and that set the tone for the afternoon.
Blackburn Hamlet was quiet – the drive there not so much, we told a lot of jokes and stories – but we enjoyed the end of a hockey game and some amazing potato salad for the 20th anniversary of community housing luncheon. It was my first chance to answer questions about my job with Clive and why I was following him. More or less, for the same reason I am writing this blog; to offer insight to who he is. Clive, meanwhile, chatted with the people, held a newborn infant and answered questions on transit. Soon, as in all cases, we were on the road again and this time out to Metcalfe for the Metcalfe Fair.
We ran into Jim Watson twice at the fair. He was decent to us, came with two aids who were both dressed nicely and we generally gave one another space. Clive was fantastic in the thick crowd at the fair and spent a great lot of time in the midway. Clive’s family was also at the fair and I had the chance to watch him step away from the campaign and ride the carousel with two of his grand children. It hit me then that this campaign was not about Clive, Jim, Andy or Larry – or the others, sorry gentleman and lady – but rather about those kids giggling and laughing with their grandpa. This campaign would dictate the tone for their generation and how they would either live in our successes or be cleaning up after our failures. But, before we left, Jim Watson had a moment to grandstand with a $200 donation to the United Way and an open mic to talk about his platform. Clive responded with a $250 donation and the open mic ... Rather than talk politics he called out to his grand kids to let them hear him saying he loves them; cheesy or not, I was touched.
We reluctantly left the fair and headed back to town. Sitting in the back seat we answered a couple of questions over Twitter on my iPhone and then made it in time for the Open House. CTV-Ottawa filmed him talking about Tweet-street and then we got to talking politics with people who came in. I could tell that by the end of the day Clive was in need of a nap; I wanted to be in a coma. We separated ways for a couple of hours, but met back up at Zaphods where Clive was dancing again, looking full of energy and life while the campaign volunteers unwound with good drink and better music.
About that dance at city hall, though. I stared at Clive’s dance partner trying to place her and it did not hit me until she came in with her daughter at Zaphods. Ah ha! The mysterious dance partner had volunteered at the last formal I attended for the College of Humanities at Carleton University back in the spring. So, it was through her daughter that I met her initially, but several months before. Yet, the biggest Ah ha moment of the night came from my wife when Clive recalled babysitting for a young child back when he was a teen. That same young child was/is Canadian actor and director Karen Wood, but also my wife’s aunt. Small world ... smaller community. Right man for the job? I believe so and not just for the politics, but for his ability to be just like common man because he is just like all of us.
I beg you to vote on October 25th. I am not going to ask you to vote for a specific candidate, but to vote with conviction. If you believe in Clive like I do, vote for him. Don’t listen to the spin about splitting the vote. The truth is, the last mayor was voted in by 110,000 or so people in Ottawa; our population is 812,129 on the books. You do the math on that one. So get out there and vote!
W.
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