Tempers almost reached the boiling point at the candidates’ debate the other night at the poorly attended meeting at the Capitol Centre. The stage was set for a healthy debate among the four candidates in the 2015 election. The home of preforming arts in North Bay did produce a little drama between the incumbent Conservative and the former Liberal MP. In the end it all boiled down to sticks and stones but it did raise the old question: What is in a name?
At first viewing of the video it reminded me of one of Johnny Cash’s songs that topped the charts years ago: A Boy Named Sue. In the song, Johnny told of all the problems he faced growing up because his father had named him Sue – a girls’ name (then – who knows now?). Being saddled with a name you do not like can have some detrimental effects on a young man – or even an older person. I know from experience.
Named William, I naturally got Bill as a shortened moniker but some people insisted on calling me Billy. I was rather slight in my younger days, a mere wisp from what I am now, but I hated that nickname. “Can you bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?” I outgrew the name except for a few old chums who still use it and I do not mind it so much anymore. Nevertheless, Candidate Rota does not like his diminutive: Tony. And everybody knows that.
Therefore, when Jay began calling Anthony ‘Tony’ in the debate, Anthony took exception to the name. Decorum finally ruled and the scenario did not follow that of the song as the boy named Sue fought it out in the mud and the sweat and beer. However, a tussle would have made CBC headlines. Nonetheless, I think Anthony missed an opportunity. It would have been a perfect chance to quote a little Shakespeare.
Mind you, Billy Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar would have lost a little zip if he had called the historical character Mark Tony. In fact, Octavian might not have picked him for a partner with a name like that: Mark Tony. Would Cleopatra have bedded a Mark Tony? However, I would have enjoyed Anthony paraphrasing Billy:
“I come to bury Harper, not praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is often interred with their bones
So be it with Harper.
The noble Jay has told you
Harper was ambitious . . .
Who won the debate? Peltier may have gathered a few more names on her Green shirt; Jodouin brought it to our attention that the NDP do have a platform plank for Northern Ontario; Aspin was feisty but name-calling did him no good; and it was encouraging to see that Anthony still had a little fire in his belly. Election night will be interesting.
