NDP Recruits Great Candidate for Westmount-Ville Marie By Election: CBC's Loss Is Public Policy's Gain

So it’s official: Anne Lagacé Dowson, host of CBC’s Radio Noon show in Montreal, will be running for the NDP in the Westmount-Ville Marie riding by election later this summer. This is very good news. Not only is Dowson an intelligent, charming, hard-working woman, she’s at the right place at the right time. This will be a campaign to watch, and one I’m hoping to be involved with in some small way.

Of course, there’s an irony here.

My novel The Violets of Usambara has its roots in part in my involvement in the NDP in the 1980s. At the time I was sure that the NDP could win my home riding of Outremont, and with Thomas Mulcair it did in a by election last fall. Now with another strong candidate perhaps it will be able to convince voters in a riding which is much more diverse than its name indicates to send a strong message in favour of things like peace-keeping, sensible economic policy, and the importance of strong cities in saving the planet.

But because Ms. Dowson had to take a leave of absence as soon as she told the CBC she was running, an interview she had scheduled with me last week about Violets had to be cancelled. Maybe it will be rescheduled, but maybe not. As I told my husband when Radio Noon told me about the change in plans, here’s some good news and some bad.

On balance, though, in the grand scheme of things, I should remember what Humphrey Bogart said to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca: “the problems of (a couple of) little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

Here’s looking at you, kid! Lots of luck and bon succès, Anne.