Pinball says he’s not thinking of political office
Florida-born Clemons is now Canadian citizen
For years, Canadians have been asking Michael (Pinball) Clemons about his plans to seek elected office in this country, and for years, one small formality allowed him to dodge the question like an open-field tackler: Despite his celebrity in Canada, he was not a citizen.
That changed last Tuesday when Clemons, the longtime Canadian Football League star, took the oath of citizenship alongside his wife, Diane. This is an election year in Canada, and several observers have acknowledged Clemons would be a formidable candidate for whichever federal party he might happen to choose.
“He’s certainly a known quantity, he has a national profile,” said Tim Powers, an Ottawa-based political strategist and vice-chairman of Summa Strategies. “And all of those things matter in campaigns.”
“This is someone who is charismatic, who is articulate, who I think has a warm and fuzzy kind of image to him,” said Myer Siemiatycki a politics professor at Ryerson University, in Toronto. “He’s knowable, he’s likable — that adds up to votes.”
Clemons, who turned 50 in January, is from Dunedin, Fla., and was raised by a single mother in a home not far from where the Toronto Blue Jays hold spring training. Having signed with the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, he quickly became the face of the franchise, and one of a handful of athletes who transcended their sport in the city.
A gifted orator and public speaker, Clemons is widely known for his charity work and for his various causes. He is also known for running behind schedule because of his habit of stopping to speak — or just as often, to both hug and speak — with people along the way.
At least once a day, Clemons said, those conversations touch on his political ambitions.
“It’s a tremendous compliment to suggest I would be worthy of public support on a mass basis like that,” he said during a telephone conversation last week. “The first reaction is humility.”
His second reaction: He will not seek public office this year.
“Life changes, different opportunities come,” he said. “I’m not comfortable with the idea of politics for at least five to seven years, if ever. And that’s a real key — if ever, because it’s not something that I’m determined to do.”
A number of professional athletes have retired to careers in Canadian politics. Don Getty and the late Peter Lougheed both spent time with the Edmonton Eskimos before winning election to become Premier of Alberta. Ken Dryden, the former Montreal Canadiens goaltender, won a seat in the 2004 federal election. Sandy Annunziata, a former lineman who played for Clemons in Toronto, is a regional councillor in Fort Erie, Ont.
“Any of the main political parties would welcome Pinball Clemons with open arms as a candidate,” said Siemiatycki.
Clemons lives in the Toronto suburb of Oakville, where he and Diane have been raising their three Canadian-born daughters. He holds a degree in economics from the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va., and was on his way to a career at Honeywell, a Fortune 500 company, before the CFL lured him north of the border.
Siemiatycki said his candidacy would bolster any of the federal parties if he ran in one of the ridings in or around the city. For the Conservatives, Siemiatycki said, Clemons would offer a shot in the arm and a friendly face in the historically unfriendly Toronto ridings.
If he were to run for the Liberals, the professor said, Clemons would provide party leader Justin Trudeau with a public vote of confidence. For the NDP, he would offer the power of name recognition.
“He’s got to do some calculations about whether this is the best way that he can have influence,” said Simon Kiss, from the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy, at Wilfrid Laurier University.
“When you don’t declare for a party, then all parties have to open their doors to
It’s not something that I’m determined to do
you. The moment he declares for a party, half the political spectrum is kind of closed to him.”
In effect, Kiss said, becoming a member of Parliament could actually diminish his ability to champion causes, in part because he would likely have to parrot party lines.
Michael Fletcher was a star linebacker with the Argos in 2004, the year Clemons coached the team to a Grey Cup win. Clemons gave one of his most famous pre-game pep talks in the dressing room that day, and Fletcher said he has a “knack of capturing the audience.”
Those skills, though, might not work best in politics.
“It’s just natural that, in politics, people start to pick sides,” Fletcher said. “And he just seems to be a champion for the people, in general.”
“There’s a lot of similarities between political life and football,” Annunziata said. “But in football, the enemy always came at me from the front. In politics, they tend to sneak up on you.”
Clemons has already dabbled in politics, having campaigned for John Tory in Toronto’s mayoral election last fall. Tory won.
“I don’t know if that’s an environment Pinball would thrive in,” said Annunziata. “Again, I know, just playing for him, he’s a guy you would run through a wall for; and how could you ever let that guy down?”