海角社区官网

Last month Bradley ended, for now, a career in the Ontario cabinet that spanned three premiers 鈥� Wynne, McGuinty and Peterson 鈥� though he鈥檚 still MPP for St. Catharines, 39 years and running.

When I was first elected in 1999, Jim just seemed curmudgeonly to me. I was a 33-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer and professor, representing a tony midtown 海角社区官网constituency that included Forest Hill. If my riding was emblematic of the Creative Class, the fashionable socioeconomic label of the day, Bradley鈥檚 riding was known for being working class, with chronic housing shortages and the lowest median family income in the province.

In opposition, I was exuberant and ambitious, often grabbing for headlines. Bradley mostly tended to his riding, never a showman, and his foreboding contributions in caucus meetings earned him plenty of Eeyore cracks from colleagues.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e the future. I鈥檓 the past,鈥� Jim would say to me back then. And I would wonder why he was smiling.

Then in 2003, the Liberals formed government and we went into cabinet together. That鈥檚 where Jim would make his lasting historic contribution to the Ontario public. That鈥檚 where the Duck would come up.

Not more than a few times a year, especially when someone brought up a study or an expert, Jim would start talking about the Golden Pheasant Tavern. 鈥淚鈥檓 sitting here wondering what they鈥檇 be saying at the Duck about all this,鈥� and a (long) speech to premier and cabinet colleagues would follow.

Bradley would talk about people who were barely getting by, if at all, and those whose voice was not otherwise being heard at that moment. He sharply reminded us of the hoi polloi鈥檚 skepticism of bourgeois political thinking. Whatever elites were for, Jim was against.

Extremely well read, Bradley was nonetheless an iconoclast. Special scorn was reserved for those dismissing the industries historically feeding the Duck. The people at the Duck were not fully participating in Ontario鈥檚 service economy, economists would say, still 鈥渟tuck鈥� in manufacturing jobs. That made Jim turn red.

After all, the Duck was built down the road from a manufacturer of hardware for horse and wagon transport. Later it served countless GM workers with lifetime jobs and healthy pensions. The manufacturing industry has long since migrated to slave labour economies not of this country, but those left behind are sitting on a stool at the Duck.

Jim speaks for them. Bradley was particularly sensitive to how modest increases to the cost of living 鈥� new taxes, user fees, hydro price hikes, hidden surcharges 鈥� were a dark tipping point to someone living near the edge of poverty.

At cabinet, Bradley spoke for the Duck demographic in Ontario sociologically, economically, ideologically but also for what blue collar Ontario faces more than the wealthy: welfare, crime, addiction and mental illness. Bradley was eloquently outspoken against Ontario government-owned casino and lottery expansion. He knew that it was the poor, not the rich, who were feeding Ontario Lottery and Gaming coffers. He almost single-handedly fended off efforts to expand OLG, until recently.

For Jim Bradley could speak to cabinet ministers鈥� better sides, reminding us of why we were elected and why we were Liberals. The false necessity that drives most of the left鈥檚 pragmatic abandonment of their voter base was always highlighted by Bradley for what it was: a sellout. It was to Liberal premiers鈥� great credit that they kept him in cabinet so as to be berated, indefatigably, by the MPP from St. Kitts.

His resignation from cabinet last month should not be marked by hand wringing, though you can be sure that Jim is wringing his hands because that鈥檚 all he does. Bradley knew that all good things must come to an end and it was time for him to make room for new voices.

Let鈥檚 hope one of those new voices picks up some of that mantle. Let鈥檚 never forget about the people sitting in the Golden Pheasant Tavern. Jim never did, despite almost 40 years at Queen鈥檚 Park, proving that power doesn鈥檛 always corrupt, when held carefully in humble hands.

Michael Bryant was in the Ontario Cabinet for six years and a 海角社区官网MPP from 1999-2009.