Forgive me. I am a big John Irving fan. I am also a bad punster. (thus not able to resist an allusion to the best-seller, "The World according to Garp.") And overwhelmingly, I am grateful to the maverick MP from Halton, former resident of my riding in North London, for his ringing endorsement of my by-election campaign today. Tomorrow he will join me in his old neighbourhood in a door to door effort to drum up votes for the Green Party.
For weeks it has been rumoured that Garth Turner would become the first Green Party M.P. in Canada. In brief, he is a former Cabinet Minister, financial columnist and ground-breaking parliamentarian for digital democracy, now also a former Conservative, thrown out of his party by a hierarchy with no tolerance for independent expression of views. Today, Garth Turner made it clear that he did not want to be the first Green Party MP. He wants me to be elected in London North Centre, becoming the first Green Party MP myself.
The campaign in London is uphill. The seat was held for the last nearly two decades by the Liberal MP, Joe Fontana. The by-election was called on October 22 for November 27th. Due to the municipal campaign, which ended yesterday, the effective federal race to elect a new MP for London North Centre is an all too brief two weeks. Today, Conservative Dianne Haskett brought in Justice Minister Vic Toews to help her campaign. The Liberal candidate had a helping hand from my old friend, Bill Graham. And tomorrow, I have some high-powered help of my own. I need a lot of word of mouth and local support to make a significant breakthrough in London.
Anything is possible.