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MP Kilgour's a true independent

Article in the Ottawa Citizen, A2

by Donna Jacobs

November 14, 2005


Constituents in Alberta have to talk fast. MP David Kilgour works in 15-minute slots. "I hope they get my full attention," he says, "and I take notes."

"I think my record," he laughs, "was 34 appointments in one day."

He's less efficient in longer-winded Ottawa. Nevertheless, over 26 years, says the Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont MP, "that's a lot of meetings."

In Parliament, only NDP MP Bill Blaikie has served longer -- he was sworn in one day before Mr. Kilgour.

If his days are packed, so are his weeks. Although he now sits as an Independent, Canada's former secretary of state for half the world -- Latin America and Africa, and then Asia Pacific -- continues his international work. His schedule one November week: London, Ont., Halifax, Washington, D.C. and Budapest, Hungary.

In London and Washington, he spoke of the accelerating genocide by government-directed Arab militias in Darfur province, Sudan.

He returned from London with this story: Jane Fonda spent months agitated over the Rwanda genocide in 1994. The activist actress finally wore down her husband, Ted Turner, founder and long-time boss of CNN.

He ordered that every CNN reporter who spoke to a politician, or to members of the Clinton administration, ask what they were doing to stop the Rwanda slaughter.

Whether due to CNN or not, within a week (but too late to stop the murder of 800,000 people in 90 days) the U.S. sent an intervention force.

Today, says Mr. Kilgour, more than 2.5 million Darfuris are refugees in government-surrounded camps where 400,000 people have been murdered or died from disease or starvation, and where many others endure brutal rapes and attacks.

"I wish there were a Ted Turner in Canada who would say to himself or herself 'This has got to stop,'" he says wistfully.

In Hungary, he travelled with the Christian Embassy, which discusses "the spiritual side" with ambassadors, politicians, business people, professionals and academics.

Henry David Thoreau poetically noted, "The bluebird carries the sky on its back." Mr. Kilgour carries the world on his. Updates on the latest Canadian and international misgovernance, human plights and quixotic causes flash through his BlackBerry.

However cheerful his demeanour, he takes them to heart.

And, as a Liberal MP and former cabinet member, he took them directly to Prime Minister Paul Martin last February. At the top of his 10-point grievance list was Canada's inaction on Darfur and an appeal to send 500 Canadian troops. (He says, today, three advisers have been sent of the 100 promised.)

He also sought legal protection for Canadian whistleblowers and a sharp increase in Canada's international aid (from .025 per cent to 0.7 per cent of GDP.) Unsatisfied, he left the Liberal party in April to sit as an independent, thus threatening the fragile Liberal minority government.

International news is on Mr. Kilgour's mind first thing in the morning. (The only television program he watches in the evening is BBC news at 6.)

His favourite (and free) portal is ceoexpress.com with its package of international newspapers and columnists. A quick read of the Citizen and National Post precedes his work day.

Ella, the family Jack Russell terrier, used to rouse him at 6:30 every day for a run. But Ella recently had chemotherapy for cancer and Mr. Kilgour stopped running to avoid the disappointment in her bright eyes when he left her behind.

Finally, three weeks ago, unable to walk or eat, Ella took the trip, with the family, to Alta Vista Animal Hospital. "We sat in the room with her and we realized we were keeping her alive for our sakes, and not for hers." An injection, one minute. "It was very peaceful.

"Now at home it's eerie. We see Ella everywhere. It's quite a disturbing process," he says, only lightened by notes from neighbours and friends.

And, even more so, because he and his wife, Laura, are alone for the first time in two decades -- with daughters Margo in Melbourne, Eileen in Cambodia, Hilary at Kingston's Queen's University and headed for New Zealand, and son David in Halifax.

Besides jogging, he also races around on his decrepit white English bicycle. He cuts a comical, angular figure as he whips along the street in a suit, tie, scuffed black cowboy boots, trench coat flapping.

Heroes? He names his parents, Mary and David Kilgour of Winnipeg, Louis Riel, John McCrae (author of In Flanders Fields and "my grandmother's brother"), Grant MacEwen, author of 27 books on Western Canada; former Czech president Vaclav Havel, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

How does he balance home, work and travel? "Oh, it's a constant struggle and I do it very badly." He concedes that he has trouble saying 'No' to important causes.

Stress management tips? "I don't know how you deal with stress except you just don't internalize things. It's easier to say than do."

Is he thick-skinned? "No, I'm certainly not. But at some point you just have to say, 'I can't take that comment or insult seriously.'

"You have to be blessed with a short memory, and keep the bridges open - or try. You can't do it with everybody. It could be that a year later, you will be great friends," he says. "It's a long road.

"Humour is great -- make a joke out of it. So is a soft answer that turneth away wrath."

He doesn't have Blue Mondays. "All the years I've been an MP, I've enjoyed going to work on virtually every day."

What gets him up and out every morning? "The belief that you can make a difference, even in one single person's life. It's the thing I'll miss the most when I'm no longer in Parliament. But I hope I'll still do it."

Instead of running in the next election, he plans to work on governance in Asia and Africa, "on problems we also have in Canada -- transparency and confidence."

He is deeply concerned by regional alienation "in every part of the country except for southern Ontario," he says. "I've laid it out in a couple of books (Uneasy Patriots: Western Canadians in Confederation and Inside Outer Canada.)"

In three separate protests, these issues have propelled him in and out of the Liberal and Conservative parties. In 1986, as a Progressive Conservative, he withdrew from the party caucus briefly to protest political patronage. After voting against prime minister Brian Mulroney's GST, he was kicked out of the party in 1990. He joined the Liberal party in 1991.

Most -- not all -- constituents back his current independent stance: "People come up to me on the street and in airplanes, pleased someone is standing up for (strong) whistleblowing legislation and for Allan Cutler (the Public Works Department manager who lost his job after warning of abuses, completely exonerated by the Gomery commission.)"

Instead of drawing up a new law, also to be ignored, "why not lead by example," Mr. Kilgour asks, "and make Cutler the new ethics commissioner?"

And now, he says, Public Works is thinking of centralizing its $19-billion-a-year buying power, which would "make it harder for small businesses across the country to get contracts --and easier for larger Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal firms."

What is the common thread that has run through his long political career?

"I hope it's the view that every single human being is equal in the eyes of God -- and should be in the eyes of the UN and everybody else. But some are more equal than others," he says softly. "Some are certainly more equal than others."

Donna Jacobs is an Ottawa writer; her e-mail address is mondaymorning@thecitizen.canwest.com

 

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