An Omni-Partisan Post-Election Greeting From Kitchener Centre

December 2nd 2023, Original Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Our provincial byelection is over here in Kitchener Centre. My contribution to the deliberation process was with an organization called Peace for All Canada, a community-based conflict transformation initiative. Peace for All has launched a “Voice of the Community” online radio project, and I helped interview the major party candidates. Three accepted our invitation to come and talk with us. We tried really hard to include the PC candidate, but never received a response. 

This  post-election greeting is from me personally, not from any organization (I also helped a hastily formed group called Citizens in the Arts, Kitchener and Area communicate with candidates after the cancellation of Cultural Exchange 9.0 at THEMUSEUM at Queen and King). When I say “we” I mean citizens in and of Kitchener who are engaged with civic issues, concerns and opportunities. But this greeting is from me, and me alone, writing from a rather peculiar perspective: I’m the only proponent of a distinctly Canadian omni-partisan approach that I know. There must be others out there; I just haven’t met them yet. 

So here’s my message to our new MPP, Aislinn Clancy: Congratulations on your victory. Your people ran a splendid campaign. The fact that we’ve chosen a Green MPP to work alongside our amazing Green MP should be good news for every good-hearted Canadian citizen from coast to coast to coast. I know you’ll do us proud in Queen’s Park. If we can help in any way, let us know and we’ll be there for you.

To Debbie Chapman: Thanks for stepping up and being willing to serve. I volunteered to help, and voted for you, but I have to say that I’m relieved you’ll be remaining here with us, representing Ward 9 -- my Ward -- on Kitchener City Council. You were by far the most qualified candidate, and I honestly believe you can accomplish more carrying on with your work at City Hall than as a member of the opposition to a lame duck administration in Toronto.  

To Kelly Steiss: It was a pleasure meeting and talking with you during the campaign. Thanks for stepping up and carrying the Liberal Red banner so valiantly. There’s so much work to be done between now and 2026, when both the provincial and our municipal governments will be under review. We’re going to need all minds, all hands and all party banners to find our way out of this wilderness.-- Green, Orange, Red and maybe even True Blue.  

To Rob Elliott: Sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet you. If you happen to be in the Kitchener area sometime in the near future, let’s get together so we can get acquainted. I think you’ll find that we’re good people, here in the heart of Kitchener. If you get to know us, and get a better sense of what we’re trying to protect, and what kind of future we want to build, you may even decide to stay here and work with us. 

To the other fourteen candidates who were on the ballot: Thanks for being willing to serve, and congratulations on successfully earning us the distinction of putting our mark on what I’ve been told was the longest ballot in Canadian history. If the response to this wealth of options has been guarded, please remember that we’re still trying to make do with a first-past the-post, winner-take-all electoral process designed for a simple, two-way party system like they still have in the republic down below, and that we left behind a century ago. We’re only beginning to figure out how a four-way configuration might work, so the prospect of having to learn how to handle an eighteen-wheel rig is rather daunting.      

To everyone whose name was on that record-shattering ballot: Peace for All Canada is trying to organize a post-election all-candidates meeting at the Civic Hub in Downtown Kitchener. This will be an experiment in conflict transformation.

What’s missing in our electoral processes, in the municipal, provincial and federal spheres, is an equivalent to the moment in a party leadership race when, after all the contesting is over and done with, there’s one last call to make the decision unanimous. 

Unanimity is neither possible nor desirable in a multi-party political culture. But the person who is elected for the House of Commons in Ottawa or the Provincial Legislature in Toronto is charged with serving and representing us all, in accordance with the platform of the party they belong to and in the light of their own best judgment.  

Civility and a willingness to work together are both desirable, and in these troubled times, necessary. That’s part of the purpose of calling all the contestants together one last time now that the campaign has ended.