Random Access

When Phil Green’s 14-year-old son Thierry got home from school one day last week, his father suggested they throw the kayaks on the top of the car and go surfing at Jack Darling Park.
His son suspected something was up when Dad was being so spontaneous, so much like his old, pre-political self. And, indeed there was something up.
Green, clearly the best local candidate the Conservative Party of Canada had to offer in the past two federal elections, had decided not to run a third time against Liberal Paul Szabo in Mississauga South.
“When you’re surfing you can catch this wave or you can catch the next one,” said Green. “Well, I’m not catching this wave.”
Green’s official reason for stepping out of the fray is to spend more time with his family and to concentrate on his one-man environmental consulting business, Greenbridge Management, which has suffered from long absences from the boss while he was pursuing political office.
But the candidate, who came within 2,150 votes of ousting five-term MP Szabo last January, is clearly also frustrated with a party process that requires even experienced candidates to ask for a “waiver” to run in the upcoming vote.
The founding father of the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee is tired after running for four straight years through two nominations to fight two elections in 2004 and 2006.
“I had filed my papers but the party was somewhat ambivalent in answering my application,” said an obviously disappointed, yet still diplomatic Green.
What in the world are the Tories thinking? The 47-year-old would seem a dream candidate for the party with deep roots in the community (his grandparents moved to the farm where Cousin’s Foods is now located in 1946 and his grandfather was treasurer in Hazel McCallion’s first election campaign).
Fluently bilingual, internationally educated, with a Master’s degree in statistics, Green is especially competent in the environmental portfolio that the Tories are so busy blowing all over the map. He would have been Cabinet material if given the opportunity.
Political parties often cut off their noses to spite their races. The Tory backroom boys in Ottawa aren’t the first to discourage a strong local candidate with a great chance to win and they won’t be the last. Contempt for their own local organizations and their wishes is a malady that seems to affect all parties.
Do the Tories have someone in mind to parachute into Mississauga South, a riding that has a history of punishing such candidates (Donna Scott, Claudette MacKay-Lassonde)?
If not, why make your two-time flag-bearer cool his heels instead of just saying he is obviously qualified to contend for the nomination?
The Tories may live to regret their folly.
The only one happier than Green’s family about his decision not to run has to be Paul Szabo.