Reaching Davenport, door by door
CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN Riding has voted Liberal since 1962 NDP activist says he’ll perk things up
It would have been tempting — but fruitless — to stand outside Gord Perks’s campaign office with a bullhorn yesterday and call on him to come out.
It’s a tactic the NDP candidate for Davenport used to great effect in 1990 when he was a political guerrilla targeting David Peterson, then Liberal premier.
Perks is on the other side of the electoral fence now. But he wasn’t at his headquarters on Bloor St. W. He was sitting in his chilly house on Collahie St., waiting for his “ crappy old dead furnace” to be replaced. Davenport, with Canada’s largest Portuguese population, has voted Liberal since 1962. But Perks, who used to believe “ the only good politician is an embarrassed one,” is confident he can win. His beard is gone and he’s wearing a tie.
“There’s some tipping point we’re close to and the NDP could really break out,” he said. The day Peterson called the1990 election, Perks showed upwith a briefcase chained to his wrist, containing a loud tape recording of the Liberals’ ecological failings. He used a bullhorn to heckle the premier.
Davenport, shaped like a dagger in the heart of blue- collar, west- end Toronto, has almost 112,000 people. About 55 per cent of them are immigrants.
Conservative candidate Theresa Rodrigues, 54, runs her husband Victor’s architectural technology office in the riding. Though the Conservative website says she’s “ lived in Toronto’s west end for many years,” her home is in Oakville.
Perks said the Conservatives “ aren’t a factor” in Davenport. Rodrigues refuses to be downhearted. “ I’m cold but I’m fine,” she said as she spent the day canvassing. “ It’s like the lottery. If you don’t have a ticket. . .” Incumbent Mario Silva, 39, a former city councillor, has lived in the riding more than 30 years. The first Portuguese- Canadian elected as an MP says he’s more afraid of Mother Nature than Perks. “ That’s my main fear; a bad snowy day or real, hard cold when people are voting,” he said.
“Gord. . . He’s a very decent guy. But. . . I have not heard his name at anyone’s door yet. Most people don’t know him at all.”
Perks, 42, said his environmental activism has given him a good profile and a lot of reaction “ that the NDP might not traditionally have had. . . people who might have voted Green or not at all. I’ve lived in this house for about 15 years but on- and- off in Davenport before that.
“ I never until last spring had any inclination to run. But on the issues I’ve worked on for 20 years, I’ve watched the government simply absent themselves. They’re essentially out of the frame on pollution- control and the environment.”
Silva said there’s a lot of pride in the Portuguese community that one of their own is in Ottawa. “ I’m an immigrant boy. I came to this country with my parents. I’ve worked really hard on immigration and refugee issues, community and social development issues.”
Perks is putting in about six hours a day canvassing, including today, his twin daughters Thea’s and Zoe’s 15th birthday.
“ Political conversation federally is very stilted and empty,” he said. “ I’m finding the conversation on the street much livelier.” He’s prepared to do “ anything sensible” to effect bring about change. “ I’ll even go knock on doors in December. I may still have use for the bullhorn. . .”