PERSONAL, OR JUST POLITICAL?
B.C. mulls over a ‘mercurial’ leader
Angry John, or a staunch defender of the underdog?
Hulk Horgan, or a big passionate Irishman upset with the injustices of the world? For B.C. voters, those are some of the many questions raised in Wednesday’s TV debate, in which B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan found himself under attack from both of his opponents about his temperament.
It’s not the first time Horgan’s disposition has been questioned. It has remained a persistent undercurrent,
starting with his early days as an MLA in 2005, stretching through his routinely confrontational interactions with media at the legislature and most recently percolating in last week’s radio debate performance in which his critics said he was overly aggressive and personal with Liberal Leader Christy Clark.
But is it a fair subject to canvass in an election?
The efforts to brand Horgan’s temperament are proving one of the more fascinating parts of the campaign, said Max Cameron, director of the University of B.C.’s Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
It goes to the issue of Aristotle’s “practical wisdom,” which was that a good political leader has to have the character to do the right thing for the right reasons at the right time, Cameron said.
“There are people who will argue that this is all just personal stuff and personal stuff doesn’t matter — I actually disagree with that,” Cameron said. “And I think the personal is political and the political is personal. We do need to look at our leaders, and one of the reasons we have these debates is to look at their temperament and judgment.”
In the right context, anger is an important part of politics, especially when used to champion the mistreated and disadvantaged, Cameron said. But with Horgan, there are also undertones of something different, he said.
“What I perceive is anger that comes from frustration, which is a very different kind of thing than anger that comes from injustice,” Cameron said.
While there were no remarkable outbursts from Horgan during Wednesday’s TV debate, he was repeatedly goaded by B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver on the issue of temper and less-than-subtly criticized by Clark in her claims that only she is calm and reasonable enough to govern the province and negotiate with other governments, such as the United States on the softwood lumber issue.
TV debate moderator Jennifer Burke addressed the issue headon at one point with this question: “Mr. Horgan, you have described yourself in the past as mercurial, which is by definition synonymous with temperamental, unpredictable, volatile. The question for you is, and Mr. Weaver raised it about your temper, do you have an anger management issue?”
“Oh, no, of course not,” Horgan replied. “Look, I’m an Irish descendant. I’m passionate. I got involved in public life because I wanted to make life better for people. When I see a government that ignores children in care to the point where they take their own lives, I get angry. I think B.C.ers get angry as well.
“When I see a premier fight with teachers and make it more difficult to learn in classrooms for kids — a generation of kids — I get angry and I think B.C.ers do as well. I’m passionate and I feel strongly about a whole host of issues.”
That defence can work, said Mario Canseco, pollster and vicepresident of Insights West.
“Whenever he gets a comment about his demeanour, he turns it into something the government did,” Canseco said. “You turn that emotion into something that can work for you. Elections are won on emotions, and anger is an emotion.”
Politics is about making an emotional connection with the voter, and Donald Trump is an obvious recent example of someone who used the politics of anger to help connect to ordinary citizens, Canseco said.
One upside for Horgan may be that the passion has more quickly connected him to voters in parts of the province where he continues to have a low profile and name recognition, he said.
Veteran political scientist Norman Ruff said he thinks Horgan has so far walked the delicate line between passion and petulance.
“They were pushing him in their attempt to brand him that way, but he’s certainly not rising to the bait,” Ruff said.
“Horgan was clearly aware that kind of attack could come, and he was smiling much more than previously.”