To Thine Own Self Be True
To Thine Own Self Be True
I returned to UVic while I was Mayor and
completed my Master’s Degree in 2002. As
I defended my thesis I knew I had passed when the conversation turned with this
question: ‘so why didn’t you run with Gordon Campbell last year?’ I frequently encountered this question and
still do but it did make me chuckle to hear it in this serious academic
setting. My reply? “Well, I bought this tee shirt that said ‘to
thine own self be true.’”
I was a Saanich Councillor and Capital Regional
District Chair in the early 1990’s and was often working with Campbell while he
was Vancouver Mayor and Greater Vancouver Regional District Chair. I recall telling him that when he made the
move to provincial politics that I’d go with him – even though I didn’t know
which right of centre party he’d choose.
So I was there as we built up BC Liberal constituencies and recruited
candidates – and celebrated victory in May 1996, albeit for less than an hour.
Early results on election night in 1996 had us
ahead in seats and I was ahead in my own race.
This did not surprise me as there was quite a difference ‘east vs. west’
in the riding and I assumed the results were uneven. However within an hour both TV and radio were
declaring me elected. I was not accepting
this as it was contrary to our polling but once my campaign manager called and
said to hurry to the celebration I accepted victory and my family
rejoiced. However I was drove to the
campaign office, CFAX radio’s Alan Perry interrupted their program and said
‘Joe, there’s been a change in Saanich South.’
I pulled the car over to the curb and we listened as the results did
indeed change. I drove my family back
home and went to a very solemn campaign office on my own.
That night I knew I would be pivoting and
running for the vacant Mayor’s seat in Saanich that fall and was fortunate to
win. I was re-elected in 1999 despite so
many assuming I’d step aside months later for a repeat run at provincial
politics. Many assumed the elections
would be four years apart so the pressure was on for me to seek the nomination
in 2000 but I really did need to have some distance from my November victory and
to be honest with myself, I was not so sure I wanted to make the move.
I really liked being Mayor. Sure the opportunity for ‘power’ was an
attraction – and let’s admit it, MLA’s get a pension whereas Mayors don’t. Yet I really liked being able to vote my
conscience. When I ran provincially, I
had to support the party platform. Deep
down I’m a ‘blue liberal, red tory’ kind of guy and in order to capture the
Reform Party vote, the BC Liberals were further to the right than I was
comfortable with. Obviously I accepted
the platform knowing we needed to re-establish the right of centre coalition so
I take responsibility for our choices and positions. However, while Mayor, I was able to ‘call my
own shots’ – I was able to vote my conscience on every vote and I was also beginning
to see I could get results with my goals for ‘community building.’
I was pulling all these thoughts together when
some of us were bored at a municipal convention in London Ontario and went for
a drive that included a stop in Stratford.
It was there in the gift shop I saw my solution….literally on the tee
shirt I bought. I’ve never worn the
shirt; I keep it as a souvenir of such a big decision in my life; and I keep it
to remind me of a guiding principle for my life in politics.
Even when my colleagues told me that their door
knocking in my final campaign signaled that I needed to change two key
positions in order to get re-elected – my support for the sewage treatment
project and my resistance to amalgamation – I chose to stay true to
myself. After that provincial campaign
of 1996, I’d told myself I’d never take a position I didn’t believe in; that I
would never try to win at all cost. I
believe that is one of the reasons I can look back with no regrets – and I
recommend to the current crop of elected officials to keep that in mind. Compromising yourself may give you a short
term benefit but in the long term you really want to be able to say that ‘to
thine own self ‘you were true.