Columnists
The forlorn and the lonely
Today is reality check day for municipal candidates. This is the last Times edition published before next Monday’s municipal election, so on page six this week you’ll have found the paper’s recommendations about how your vote should be cast. The sting of being passed over by The Times is an advance warning that Monday’s outcome will not be a feel-good event for most candidates.
Not receiving a newspaper endorsement does not preclude electoral success. Only about eight newspapers across the entire US endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, yet somehow— perhaps with a little non-collusive help from his friends—he managed to prevail. The frustrating thing about running for elected office is that you have no control over what the electorate will deem to be important. Winston Churchill, who had just rescued Western civilization from Nazi tyranny, discovered this in the 1945 general election, when he was soundly defeated by Clement Atlee’s Labour Party. Turns out voters weren’t as much interested in rewarding Churchill for his wartime leadership as they were in selecting a person who could deliver a reconstructed society in quick time.
And what the electorate may consider relevant may be no reflection on your individual merits. Like many who observed the wars waged between Pierre Trudeau and Robert Stanfield, I felt some sympathy for good quality Progressive Conservative candidates who were doomed to failure by the fact fact their leader came across as a mortician (albeit with a light touch), while Liberal candidates slid into office in the reflected glow of their It-man leader.
So I say to the candidates who are not being endorsed by The Times, or who do not win at the polls: thank you for running. This is not a verdict on your qualities as a human being; this is a judgment made by a group of people as to the best fit for a particular position at a particular time. There will still be many opportunities for you to serve your community. I think of Sandy Latchford as a local example. Having lost the mayoralty race to Peter Mertens two elections back, she threw herself into community volunteering and became chair of just about everything that lived and breathed—as well as the Glenwood Cemetery. So do not be forlorn for long.
Life is also difficult for the newspaper publisher who has to recommend one person among a group, all of whom he knows or will come to know. Those not selected may feel a sense of betrayal: “How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends.” is a common cry. But a newspaper that has been doing its job in the world of municipal politics will develop an informed perspective on the merits of the candidates and would be failing in its duty to enlighten readers if it did not pass on its opinions. And who would want to read a newspaper that could be counted on to pull its punches at election time and devote its editorial space to earnest entreaties on the need to eliminate tooth decay?
If Prince Edward County wants a newspaper that takes a ‘hard-hitting when warranted’ approach, then it has to accept the fact that it won’t always like where the blows are struck. All it can reasonably ask is that the blows emanate from a principled and consistent position. I think The Times deserves credit for doing its best— through individual profiles and the Gary Mooney survey, spread over several weeks—to introduce all the candidates and their platforms to County readers. It has earned the right to endorse candidates.
After the 2016 presidential election, the Columbia Journalism Review published a lengthy article entitled “Newspaper endorsements are imperilled for the same reasons they’re now urgently needed.” Many newspapers have given up making endorsements because the perceived risk is all on the downside: you just alienate the non-endorsee’s constituency, up the odds that the successful non-endorsee will seek revenge, and make advertisers jumpy, But the article argues newspapers have a duty to opine, and should be able to separate political discourse from advertising. It just takes guts to do so.
So spare a little sympathy for the publisher; he’s a lonely person right now, but he’s doing a valuable job.
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