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The Citizen, 2003-11-12, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2003. PAGE 5. Other Views Go ahead — name your poison The late great Marshall McLuhan once said that a man’s name is a numbing blow from which he never recovers. Maybe that’s true. And maybe that’s why so many folks up and change their birth names. Some handle switchers do it for obvious reasons: Vanity. Embarrassment. Ambition. Tony Curtis looks better on a marquee than Bernie Schwartz. And who’s going to line up to see a celluloid cowboy with a moniker like Marion Morrison? Nobody, figured Marion. So he changed his name to John Wayne. Occasionally, entire metropolises change their names. Ontario used to have a town named Berlin until, in a fit of anti­ German patriotism, the citizens re-dubbed it Kitchener. And but for an impassioned plea from the British writer Rudyard Kipling, we would have lost Medicine Hat, Alberta. “It is a lawful, original, sweat-and-dust-won name,” wrote Kipling, “and to change it would be to risk the luck of the city, to disgust and dishearten old-timers.. .and to advertise abroad the city’s lack of faith in itself.” Just as well Kipling’s jeremiad carried the day. The citizens of Medicine Hat were thinking of changing the name of the place to Gasburg. Musicians come up with some truly loopy name changes. Arnold Dorsey was a London lounge singer whose career was going nowhere - until he changed his name to Englebert Humperdinck. Go figure. And the singer Yusuf Islam can’t seem to make up his mind. He calls himself Yusuf now. Speakers demonstrate their power A job few wanted is suddenly as eagerly sought after as if it offered unlimited expenses and an office in The Bahamas. Backbench members of the legislature are increasingly anxious to become speaker because recent occupants of the post have shown they can wield immense power. Gary Carr, a Progressive Conservative who stepped down at the October election, even helped bring down a government. It was his own party’s, but that was his choice. Carr, as speaker responsible for maintaining legislature conduct and traditions, jumped into the controversy over former premier Ernie Eves’s unveiling his spring budget in an auto parts plant instead of the legislature as normal. Can' said the Tories were trying to evade question-period and the democratic process and obtained a legal opinion that introducing the budget outside the legislature was unconstitutional. Carr went further and charged that Tory backroom election strategists, rather than elected MPPs, were running the province and questioned whether Eves was fit to govern, the most damning criticism of a premier by one of his own MPPs in memory. These protests from a traditionally non­ partisan source close to the issues were quoted widely by opposition parties and news media and were a major factor in getting the Tories started on their fall from office. Carr used his post also to threaten to eject a premier, Mike Harris, from the legislature for using offensive language and signed a petition urging that hydro rates be curbed. These- instances were widely reported and gave him recognition he would not have received as a backbencher. This exerting of more power by a speaker began under his predecessor, Chris Stockwell, also a Tory, who used the office to demonstrate he was competent enough to have been in Arthur Black but his birth name was Stephen Georgiou. Although if you’ve got any grey in your thatch at all, you’ll remember him better as Cat Stevens. We won’t even touch on the pretentious fop who insisted that he be addressed as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. But you don’t have to be musical to be nominally nutsoid. Consider the case of Zdravkov Levichov. He is - was - a Bulgarian construction worker, but an unhappy one. Until he exchanged the name he was born with for that of an English soccer club. “I’ve always been a Manchester United fan” he explained to a reporter from the Edinburgh Scotsman, “and I’ve wanted to change my name ever since I was a schoolboy. But under communism it was not possible.” Bulgaria became democratic in 1990 and Zdravkov became Manchester United shortly thereafter - but his fight isn’t over. The Bulgarian courts have ruled that his new legal name is Manchester Zdravkov Levichov United. Manny .says he won’t rest until the two middle names are history. Could be weirder. We could be in Lake City, Florida where God lives. Eric Dowd From Queens Park Harris’s first cabinet and Harris made a mistake in keeping him out. Stockwell showed, as speaker, he could be quick-thinking, decisive and tough, once ruling Harris violated legislature rules by rushing the amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto, and this propelled him into a prominent role in cabinet and run for leader. Stockwell showed being speaker could be a stepping-stone. Premiers once had speakers under their thumbs and Carr and Stockwell have changed that. Premiers traditionally appointed speakers and usually chose MPPs in their own parties whom they felt were not smart enough to be in cabinet, but deserved a consolation prize, and were docile enough to favour them in disputes. Tory William Davis changed this temporarily in the 1970s, when he headed his second successive minority government, wanted to appear committed to making it work and appointed New Democrat Jack Stokes as speaker. Stokes never bowed and scraped to the Tories, but he had been a railway conductor anxious trains ran on time and translated this into cutting off MPPs in mid-sentence while making important points, which helped the government speed up business. But Davis quickly reverted to appointing Tories as speaker when he won back a majority government and while the NDP under premier Bob Rae promised in 1990 MPPs would elect “God” is Charles Haffey - or at least Charles wishes he was. A Columbia Circuit Court judge turned down Haffey’s request to change his name to ‘God’ but they reached a compromise. Now, Charles Haffey is officially known as ‘I am who I am.’ “My first name, of course, will be T am’” explained Mister, er, Who I Am. Ah, yes. Names can be confusing. And sometimes it comes down to a single letter. Take the case of Luciano Buonocore of Gragnano, Italy. Or maybe it’s Luciana. That’s what it says on his birth certificate. A simple spelling mistake in the maternity ward turned into a lifetime of mistaken-sex misery for Luciano. For the next 28 years he was officially classified as a female. He couldn’t get a national identity card. He was hassled over his driver’s licence. He wasn’t allowed to enlist in the army. Now, he’s engaged to be married - and he’s not sure if he can, because to the Italian state, Luciano is still officially a woman and Italy doesn’t recognize same-sex unions. Not surprisingly, Luciano/Luciana has rather firm views on the naming of children. “I don’t know exactly what I’ll name my kids,” he says. “But I’ll sure take the birth certificates to a lawyer.” The famous movie mogul Sam Goldwyn had strong views about names too. When an assistant told Sam he was going to name his newborn infant Arthur, Sam exploded. “Don’t name the kid Arthur! Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Arthur!” speakers, this turned out less democratic than it sounded. Rae told reporters he favoured David Warner, a veteran New Democrat for whom he could not find room in cabinet, and the huge NDP majority dutifully installed Warner. Harris as premier put out word to his majority he preferred the more malleable Margaret Marland as speaker, but some Tory MPPs felt the premier did not listen to them and rebuked him by joining opposition MPPs to elect Stockwell. When Carr, who already showed signs of rocking boats, ran for speaker, Harris sent two of his ministers lobbying his backbenchers to vote for David Tilson, but enough of them still wanted to rebuke Harris so they put in Carr. The main attractions of being speaker used to be it offered opportunities to dine with such celebrities as the queen and Bishop Desmond Tutu and a luxurious apartment at the legislature, but now it has become one of the few posts outside cabinet to offer real power. Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your leHprs brief and concise. Bonnie Gropp * The short of it Talk sincerely So after 40 years, Jean Chretien will no longer be a fixture at the House of Commons having said his goodbyes last week. It has been a long, drawn out goodbye with many Liberals calling for Chretien to step down sooner than his promised February departure. And it has been a political career that has not always won him accolades. Yet, credit must be given to a man who rose from humble beginnings to lead this nation. Who would have thought that a man like Chretien could someday be prime minister? Not particularly enigmatic, and certainly lacking linguistically in either language, Chretien represented a small rural riding when he first entered politics in the early 1960s. He watched and learned, from his time as parliamentary secretary to prime minister Lester B. Pearson in 1965. through terms as minister of several departments, until becoming deputy prime minister under the charismatic Pierre Trudeau in 1984. In 1990 he was chosen to lead the Liberals and eventually completed 10 years as prime minister. He has been described as a ruthless leader who stopped anyone who tried to defy him. He has been described as a savvy politician. But as one commentator noted, his election as prime minister said more about the Canadian people than it did about him. We do not choose our leaders based on the superficial. And while I might agree, I can’t help wondering what it is then that we do look for. The same day that Chretien’s adieu was all over the news, so too was Ernie Eves droning on about McGuinty’s broker, promises. Now I don’t know about everyone else, but when I cast my vote at any election it is with a surety that there will be broken promises. It has become my expectation of every politician. So, if I am not choosing my leaders for their charisma and if I believe they are as capable of making false promises as a kid trying to get out of trouble, what am I looking for? The answer is simple - best intentions. The fact that I don’t generally believe a politician’s promises does not mean 1 am totally jaded. I have come to accept that one person cannot achieve every goal and ambition they hope to. sometimes even with the best efforts. There are far too many considerations and realities a government must face to not expect broken promises. But what I want to feel when I hear a prospective leader talking is sincerity, even a bit of idealism. 1 want to believe that the person who leads us wants the best, not just for the country but for the people. And I want to hear in their voice that they honestly think they can get it. One has to be careful when listening, however. Arrogance can come across the same way. The difference is that the arrogant politician does not just want the best for us. but knows what it is; the sincere one is not above asking and listening to the answer. I have yet to experience a government from municipal to federal, and that would be yours included Mr. Eves, in which promises were not broken. As a result, I have stopped putting so much stock in what is said and more in how it is said. Though arrogance may have described him better in more recent years, a decade ago when Jean Chretien first told me the Liberals had the people, the plan and “would make a difference”, 1 didn’t know if it would really happen. I just knew I believed he meant it.