Alexander learned at a pre-election event where poverty was the subject. “When I stand in the House of Commons, I speak on behalf of my community,” Mr. And his kids go to school here now.Īnd Chris Alexander, the Conservative star, is a kid from north Toronto, a globetrotting diplomat with a Tory blue parachute who alighted in the Liberal pit bull’s backyard. Last time, in 2008, his margin of victory was 3,200 votes. Holland leaves The Breakers with five votes, two maybes and a pledge from a non-voter that he will consider casting a ballot this time around. And they all have one issue: Stephen Harper. That’s two votes for Mark Holland.Įights doors get answered. She has white hair, white socks and a firm handshake. “Well, if it isn’t Mark Holland,” says Valerie, a resident of The Breakers Condominium Complex, greeting the politician on her doorstep in a Scottish brogue.ĭorothy, five floors up, is 91. It is a simple rule to follow for Mark Holland. Lesson two is, don’t do all the talking when somebody answers. “That is lesson number one when out knocking on doors,” he says. It is a political tic, a twitch he acquired when he was 19 and lost a school board election, a vote he was convinced he would win. And he is making his Liberal competitor nervous.Ĭheck that. He speaks in paragraphs, is writing a book about Afghanistan and has a Danish wife, Hedvig, who went to Yale, ran an NGO in Kabul and looks like a supermodel. Holland’s back and reclaiming a critical slice of electoral turf that has not been painted Tory blue since 1993. Handsome in a rugged way, a scrappy Pickering boy and a three-time MP- elect, who was a giant mosquito buzzing in the Conservatives’ collective ear in his role as Public Safety and National Security critic - biting them over fake lakes, mega-prisons and a long-gun registry in a guns-a-blazing rhetorical style that presumably earned his likeness a spot on Conservative strategists’ dartboards everywhere.Ĭhris Alexander, six years older, at least six inches taller, handsome in a regal way - and impressive in every way - is the political rookie tasked with hitting the bulls eye on Mr. In the Liberals’ corner, the reigning champ: Mr. Article contentįriendly words, but fighting words: A battle is on in a bedroom community just east of Toronto with blue collar roots, expanding subdivisions, an exploding immigrant population and a Main Event that is the electoral equivalent of Muhammad Ali vs. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. “Never,” the smiling Conservative rookie fires back. “We’re going to be sick of each other by the time this thing is over.” “You know,” deadpans Mark Holland, the Liberal incumbent from Pickering-Ajax. “Mom,” says Chris Alexander, “this is Mark Holland.” The procession passes, and afterward the crowd rapidly disappears, a thinning that reveals a figure ambling toward the former diplomat, exchanging pleasantries with the departing locals, thanking them for their past support and reminding them to vote on May 2. Alexander raises a tiny Canadian flag above his head. Harwood Avenue Bridge is Chris Alexander country.Ī line of black limousines looms, the crowd falls silent. He chats amiably with a collection of veterans, elderly men in red berets. Alexander arrives with his mother, Andrea, and campaign manager, Colleen Mason. On a sunny afternoon in late March he is on the final leg of the journey home, travelling down the Highway of Heroes amid of procession of black cars.
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