June 14, 2008 Saturday
FINAL EDITION
Hampton saved the NDP's bacon
SECTION: EDITORIAL/OPINION; Editorial; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 335 words
It wasn't pretty being the leader of Ontario's New Democrats for the
past 12 years and now that Howard Hampton is retiring, he deserves the
thanks of his party.
Hampton, 56, the rugged, hardscrabble, hockey-playing, northern Ontario
boy, who grew up to become a lawyer, and, since 1987, the MPP from
Kenora-Rainy River, took over as NDP leader in 1996.
That was right after the disastrous five-year term of Bob Rae as
Ontario's NDP premier, after which the party became an endangered
species in Ontario politics.
Hampton served as attorney-general and natural resources minister in
Rae's cabinet, but the two seldom saw eye-to-eye.
While Rae is now a Liberal MP, the party he left behind has never
recovered from voter fury.
Critics will say Hampton failed to grow the NDP through three
successive elections in 1999, 2003 and 2007 and was often reduced to
begging first the Tories and then the Liberals to allow the NDP to
retain official party status.
But that's an unfair assessment.
Hampton, who was clearly nearing the end of his rope during a revealing
meeting with the Sun's editorial board just days before last year's
election -- he publicly questioned whether he was still the right
person for the job -- did a thankless job well.
That job was holding the NDP together in the aftermath of the Rae
debacle.
Were it not for Hampton, the NDP could have collapsed completely as a
political force in Ontario.
Hampton preserved the party to fight another day, no small achievement.
Married to long-time Nickel Belt MPP Shelley Martel, who retired before
last year's provincial election, Hampton understandably wants to spend
more time with his family.
Possible successors include Toronto NDP MPPs Michael Prue, Peter Tabuns
and federal MP Charlie Angus.
While Hampton reportedly will stay on as an MPP until the 2011
election, if Premier Dalton McGuinty is smart, he should offer him an
oversight job in Ontario's electricity sector.
Hampton knows the file cold and cares about the public. The Liberals
could do a lot worse.
