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m1~vri~?~S~E EIJAYIOVBERi2iF.2989, PAGELT PAGE SEVEN LEADING THE PEOPLE The NDP is going to elect a new leader this weekend. Does anybody care? Political parties usually look to conventions and especially leadership conventions as opportunities for lots of free publicity. The major media will, of course, be there with there usual cadre of pundits who will speculate aimlessly on whether there is life after Broadbent. But this particular convention has not and is unlikely to generate the lind of public interest the NDP might like. The Globe and the CR0 did a poli a few weeks back which showed an absolutely abyssmal percentage of the population could niffie even one of the leadership contenders. The saine poll, however, showed equally poor percentages for the Liberal leadership contenders. The NDP is not. alone in the nation's apathy. However, a quiet, uncontroversial convention may be the best thing for the NDP. The fact that a leader is unknown today is basically irrelevant - it's how they perform in the future that is the over-riding concern. This convention should elect the person who has the greatest potential appeal to the general population. The next three years will be ample opportumity to develop a public recognition factor. Take the British Labour Party for example. Neil Kinnock was the darkest of darkhorse, compromise non-entities before he was elected leader in the early eighties. Ris obscurity and lack of any pre-determined aligniments left him free of the fratricidal divisions that came close to destroying the party. Instead of ideology, he concentrated on leadership, and, now that Maggie Thatcher is running out of steain, he's likely to be the next Prime Minister of Great Britain., What innock bas appealed to is the huge masses of people, who were left out of Maggie's revolution. Canadians too have been left out by both the Mulroney government and Trudeau's 'just society' as well.- Canada's political parties represent big business, big governinent and big labour. But it's the ordinary guy who pays the buis. That's the conistituency that the next leadetý-of the NDP bas got to tackle. The média commentators this weekend will talk of the heady days only three years ago when the NDP was leading the poils with over 40% of the decided vote and how Broad- bent was the most popular politician in Canada. But the support difted away and the NDP feil back to its traditional third-place western-based position. Will it ever lise again? What the pundits ignore is that polis do not show support for any party or person but rather who they detest least. People have an over-riding feeling that politicians aren't listening and are in it for theinselves. Cartoonists and stand-up comics have a field day with each successive crop. Unfortunately, it's no laughing matter.. The poor get poorer, the rich get richer, the sick can't gèt4 a bed in the hospital, our schools turn out graduates who' can't read or write, and yet we keep paying higher taxes. The inability of both the Liberals and Conservatives to solve the nation's problems bas created a mass of disenfranchised citizens. They know that every election they're being bought with there own money, yet have no choice. No party in this country bas the solid support of more than 5 or 10 percent of the population. The rest of us may display inclinations but we want to see some payback - sorte sign of responsiveness. We are so uncertain of our choices that a thirty second exchange in a television debate can send 20 percent of us reeling off to the other side. If the NDP could turn that discontent into solid voter support, it would win elections. They are that close ...and that far from electoral success. The same wave of discontent that bas swept away the communist governments of eastern Europe.- discontent witb bureaucracy, inefficiency, inaction and excessive taxation exists in Canada as well. Populism is the force of the nineties. The key is listening - ideology doesn't win votes, listening te the people does. The NDP needs a leader without any pre-conceived ideology who can enipathize with ordinary people. Lt needs a leader like Neil Kinnock of whom the public bas no preconceptions, a leader who can develop a rapport with the widest range of constituencies in Canada. Has Audlrey McLaughlin's low profile been deliberate? And the party needs te let their new lenar 1do iit ne of EARJS GARAGE, AT BROCE AND ELM SRES 1934 T'his garage was originally a frame building constructed as thé Ontario Hotel in the 1850a. The hotel cloeed in the early 1900s and the building was bricked and converted into a garage by Joseph Heard in 1910. Tbree generations of the Heard family operated the garage until it closed in 1970. A tai service was also associated with this garage business. The building today is occupied by Johnvinoe Foods. Whltby Ardilve photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesa, ovember 28, 1979 edition of the w y REEPRESS " The Fr-ee Press says pollution in Pringle Creek is not a new issue. It was reported in this paper a year ago. " The Free Press published a farewell to Pierre Trudeau, lour nusunderstood leader." " CHUM Radio presented a film on the history of rock and roil, at Anderson Collegiate. " '¶Latch Key Kids" are seen as a major problem by the Oshawa-Whitby Social Planning Council. 25 YEAR8 AGO from the Thursday, November 26, 1964 edition of the wH1TBY WEKLY NEWS This issue is missing. 75 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, November 26, edition of the WmmY GA2ZEI AND CHRONILE *The first parade of the new Wbitby Home Guard, comznanded by Thomas Crouch, will be held tomorrow. *The Whitby War Relief Soiety bas collected $800 for the Belgians. *A six-room brick house with a two-room frame addition is selling for $2,000 in Whitby. Municipal taxes on it are $18 a year. *Edgar L. Sexsmith, son of Methodfist Tabernacle minister Rev. m. E. Sexsmith, won a scholarship for the bighest marks iniOnt£aro County. i ý 1