John DeMont- Chronicle/ Pugilism in politics has long if not illustrious history in N.S. It’s all a bit murky, Andrew Younger’s decision to leave cabinet due to a year-old “physical assault at a party by an ex-Grit staffer turned lawyer. As Michael Gorman reports, nobody involved is talking, making the matter confusing for a whole range of reasons. For those able to take the long view of history, though, one thing is clear: it’s hardly the first time politics and pugilism have intersected in this province. Sometimes, as we all know, politics gets a little visceral in Nova Scotia. In private, the elbows go up, and occasionally in public, too. Usually, in this province known for deep political partisanship, party stripe is behind the bad blood. Remember, if you will, the roughhousing in the water closet that took place two years ago when Percy Paris, the Dexter government’s minister of economic and rural development, and Liberal MLA Keith Colwell got into it outside the washroom at the provincial legislature. Paris, who is black, later conceded to The Chronicle Herald that he regretfully “lost his cool for a few seconds after what he called an “animated exchange over something Colwell said about the African-Nova Scotian community that rubbed him the wrong way. By “losing his cool, Paris meant grabbing Colwell, who is white and represented a predominately black riding, and throwing him against a wall. The MLA from Preston-Dartmouth thought Paris crossed the line with the manhandling. He called in the police, and Paris, who subsequently resigned from cabinet, was charged with assault and uttering threats. A judge later cleared Paris of all wrongdoing. But there was a time this would have been viewed simply as some sort of manly disagreement. As evidence, I offer the fabled day in 1973 that Conservative MLA Mike Laffin had had enough of Paul MacEwan, the lone wolf NDPer who represented the adjoining Cape Breton riding. “These were two very strong rivals who never lost an opportunity to say something to put the other one down, recalls Jeremy Akerman, who led the provincial NDP party back then. One day, before a packed legislature and the entire press gallery, the two were back at it, sparring over some arcane matter regarding water delivery in the town of New Waterford. Things, as they so often did between the pair, got personal. MacEwan was on his feet declaiming some point when Laffin “came thundering towards us, says Akerman, who sat next to MacEwan in the legislature. He felt the air from Laffin’s big fist as it passed by on the way to connecting with MacEwan’s broad Hebridean features. “Fortunately, Paul had just taken his glasses off because it was a good smack, remembers Akerman, who was once himself grabbed and threatened by a political opponent in the lobby of the legislature. Some MLAs — including Liberal member and former Halifax mayor Ron Wallace, once an intercollegiate boxing champion — intervened. Somebody escorted MacEwan from the floor of the legislature. Nobody, though, called the cops. Years later, says Akerman, now an actor and artist living in Halifax, the two became good friends. Historically, that wasn’t always the way on the election trail. “When elections were fiercely contested . . . there could be much fraudulent voting, drunkenness, epic battles to gain possession of the passageways leading up to the hustings, intimidation of voters and great expense to candidates, historian Brian Cuthbertson wrote in Johnny Bluenose at the Polls: Epic Nova Scotian Election Battles 1758-1848. Outside the confines of Province House, even Joseph Howe got his dander up from time to time. As far as I know, the famed journalist and politician never put up his dukes. But he did fight a duel in Point Pleasant Park in 1840. His opponent shot first and missed. Howe, according to historians, fired his pistol in the air. It is my understanding that both participants emerged unscathed. When there’s a public fracas of some kind, politicians always hope they will be so lucky
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:33:48 +0000
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