Cutting Through The Humbug

The timeless comedy classic A Servant to Two Masters, written by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni in 1753, is focused on Truffaldino, a man with a perpetually empty stomach. Truffaldino consumes anything and everything in his sight, and is incapable of seeing beyond his personal appetites. In one scene, he even eats Beatrice's cat, upsetting his first master. As you can imagine, when given a chance to gain a second master, and get another dinner, Truffaldino is ecstatic. This whole piece belongs to the Commedia dell'arte theatre style, which, like the McAleer "campaign" and the CYPC leadership election as a whole, is home to returning jokes, and mistaken identities.

The similarities between the quirky and suspicious Truffaldino, and Lord Kurtis of Ajax are striking. Both men see nothing more than personal interest, and are prepared to sacrifice decency, and dignity to advance. If you believe otherwise about McAleer, allow me a few examples, and I assure you that you will be seeing Truffaldino in St Kurtis soon enough.

The first point I raise is McAleer's latest pet project - the Ontario Youth Assembly. Sound familiar to an organization you know? McAleer is apparently of the persuasion that improving the CYA is not worth the time, instead, let's start a knockoff. Of course, if the garage door isn't working, why not build a new garage? And who did he turn to for help in building this K-Mart CYA? None other than Jamie Masse, one of the countless ANDY ministers to give up in office. Wolves prefer the company of other wolves, I guess. However, as soon as he set up the "organization", he abandoned it. He didn't even leave it with a logo. Canada's shortest youth parliament.

My second point is about McAleer's party affiliations. Now, from what I understand, he was CYPC, then LYPC, then CYPC, AYCC, and finally, CYPC again. However, none of us really know, and I could be missing the mark completely. Our man truly is a McAleer of many parties; a man going with the flavour of the month. Let me touch on the only one of these that I can go into some detail about - his time in the LYPC. He served in a position or two, doing nothing effective, yet still holding up the titles to his clique. When a leadership election came into play, McAleer had burned too many bridges with his insufferable arrogance, and alienated would-be supporters. A bid was out of the question. When McAleer realized that, he began looking elsewhere. Service was not enough, he had to be in the spotlight.

Final point, the CYA-YPC issue. Now, I am not one to open old wounds, but we must not accept double agents as organizational leaders just because we are scared to "go there again". McAleer is playing off the CYA membership's deep pain and sorrow over the YGC affair, and beefing up his endorsement book with the support of "Youth Ministers". Early in his campaign, he announced a few of those endorsements, and even Immanuel Giulea was outraged. CYPCers jumped to fight back, and the announcement just disappeared. I suspect he will tell you that he is a changed man. Look, he left the organization's Facebook networks. Yet right in between being a fan of "Bonfires" and "Make a 'don't like' button on facebook!!", McAleer has nestled his support for the YPC, as a fan. It doesn't stop there - a member of a YGC support group, and a McAleer "MYP" support group. We have no idea if McAleer is still a "Youth Cabinet Minister". These are questions that every CYPCer must ask themselves.

Let me conclude with this thought: the CYPC was in obscurity. It is not now. However, it easily could be. The history of right wing CYA parties is one of factional in-fighting and eventual disintegration. The CYPC can change that by picking a leader that can unify his party, and this organization. It has to be someone new, someone fresh, not a party hack. It can't be an AYCCer. I don't know who, but selecting a leader lacking these credentials would be a recipe for disaster.

It is my hope this story, like A Servant to Two Masters, ends with our Truffaldino, Kurtis McAleer, never gaining that full belly.

I am going into this blog business with the assumption that there are a few people reading who have no clue who I am, or what I do. I say a few because to have not heard of the escapades of Max Naylor, you must either be an Alaskan governor, hiding in the hills of Afghanistan, or be willfully blocking out the news of my adventures. With that in mind, I will do an introduction anyway.

My name is Max Naylor, and I am the Leader of the Liberal Youth Party. I have been leader for nearly nine months, and before that, I was on the executive as Outreach Director. Why should you care? Well, I am the youngest leader of a major party, quite possibly any party. I am 16 years old only. I know, terrifying. I am a born-and-bred Torontonian and thus I feel torn between entitlement and shame. I joke of course. I love my city, my province, but, most of all, my country.

I am looking forward to getting to know each and everyone of you. Let's get to work building a great organization with a diverse political culture. Let's get to work, Canada.

MN.