TED HSU, M.P. POINTS A WAY FORWARD

The Prince Edward-Hastings Federal Liberal Association held its Annual General Meeting at the Belleville Yacht Club July 26. At that meeting I was acclaimed the Executive Vice President of the Association. I have responsibility for election readiness and chair the Election Readiness Committee (ERC).

 The new Liberal M.P. for Kingston and the islands, Ted Hsu, was guest speaker. Without being able to cite him word for word, let me recall what he said. He reflected on his first weeks in parliament. He observed that Conservatives and NDP debated issues on the basis of their respective ideological positions. With the clear vision that a newcomer can sometimes have, he understood the Liberal parliamentarians to be taking a distinctive approach to the issues. He saw them addressing issues directly, willing and competent to carry out the demanding work of understanding specific issues.

What he said struck me as offering a way of proceeding that could make the federal Liberal party a political force over the next four years. What is the way of proceeding that I refer to? It is openess to ask questions and to seek understanding. This approach sets aside preconceptions. It struggles to be free of bias. It is not motivated by the advantage of the Liberal party but by the common good to be achieved. It has the courage to view issues on a long term and not just on a short term perspective.

Central to this way of proceeding is insight. Liberals must nurture the capacity to recognize the difference between understanding and not understanding an issue. In other words, if I do not understand an issue, may I have the good sense not to speak. Knowing that I do not understand, there is an onus put on me to make an effort to understand.

This is a challenge of personal growth and it is challenge in the evolution of group culture. At every level of the ongoing conversation among parliamentarians and party members, first place should be given to those who demonstrate insight into the issue being addressed. Whether one is new to the party or a long experienced member, whether one is young in years or more senior, garlanded with degrees or not, blessed with extensive life experience or not, the voice to be attended to is the voice of one who has understood the matter at hand.

Ted Hsu, M.P. gave a practical suggestion that I think could be of great help in invigorating and focusing the local federal Liberal party members. He offered to be a channel through which PEH issues could be presented to the Ontario caucus of the federal Liberal party. Might it not focus our local membership if by Monday evening each week we had identified and presented an issue to the Member of Parliament to be taken forward to the caucus? This would necessitate ongoing conversation and it would give room for the rich resource base of our membership to have an ongoing influence. Odila Hoye, Vice President Policy, is willing to guide and research the issues that will be presented. We would be challenged to demonstrate that we understood the issues.

In the larger view, we are in an extended period of transition. I draw her on the thought of the Canadian thinker, Bernard Lonergan, to frame the ongoing political choices. He has written: "Classical culture cannot be jettisoned without being replaced; and what replaces it cannot but run counter to classical expectations. There is bound to be formed a solid right that is determined to live in a world that no longer exists. There is bound to be formed a scattered left, captivated by now this, now that new development, exploring now this and now that new possibility. But what will count is a perhaps not numerous center, big enough to be at home in both the old and the new, painstaking enough to work out one by the one the transitions to be made, strong enough to refuse half measures and insist on complete solutions even though it has to wait" (Bernard Lonergan, "Dimensions of Meaning," in Collection, p. 245).