Link
By
Eric Dowd
Toronto
– Actor Warren Beatty is considering running against California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger and it recalls a link he has to Ontario politics as
dramatic as any of his movies.
Beatty,
a longtime Democrat, accused Schwarzenegger, a Republican, of governing by
spin and photo ops and being a lackey of President George W. Bush.
Beatty
said he has not made a decision, but would not rule out running. U.S.
media have dubbed it a race between Dick Tracy and The Terminator and it
would create almost as much interest as that for the presidency.
Beatty’s
sister, Shirley MacLaine, in Toronto promoting her new film, added the
only thing that might prevent him running is he has young children, by his
actress wife, Annette Bening, yet another star. (It normally is difficult
working such celebrated names into a Queen’s Park column.)
Beatty
and MacLaine emigrated to the U.S. from Nova Scotia and their link to
politics here was through an uncle, Alex MacLeod, who moved to Ontario and
was that rarity, a Communist or Labor-Progressive member of the
legislature, from 1943-51.
McLeod
was admired by all parties for his erudition and oratory and after he was
defeated Progressive Conservative premier Leslie Frost paid him the
tribute `the opposition has lost 50 per cent its membership.’
Frost
found MacLeod work editing a government publication on human rights and
writing speeches. MacLeod by now was disillusioned with Communism,
particularly over its treatment of those in occupied countries, and Frost
explained he never was a doctrinaire Communist, but a fighter for the
underdog.
MacLeod
wrote speeches for John Robarts, who followed Frost as Tory premier. One
is remembered particularly, because in it Robarts welcomed Quebec premier
Jean Lesage warmly to Toronto and expressed an interest in Quebec’s
aspirations that launched him as a builder of national unity.
MacLeod
later did research and speech-writing for education minister William
Davis, Robarts’s heir-apparent, and had a small room on an upper floor
where politicians and reporters, including this writer, trekked, seeking
his insights, which he provided with calm, good humor and command of
language.
McLeod
was crossing a Toronto street when he was hit by a car and killed and left
a son, David, then in his twenties and an aspiring politician.
David
became an aide to Davis as education minister and premier, particularly
helping arrange his itinerary and virtually always traveling with him.
This
is how he came to be beside Davis in the most famous photograph of the
premier, taken soon after his party chose him leader in 1971.
Davis
was visiting Ontario Place, the innovative entertainment centre the
province had built on the Toronto waterfront.
Davis
never had been thought of as having charisma. He had been noted for
small-town, short-back-and-sides haircuts and rumpled, brown
single-breasted suits, but suddenly swapped them for stylish sideburns,
double-breasted grey suits with lapels as wide as Highway 401 and ties to
match.
When
Davis descended into the forum, hordes of teenagers rose and many reached
out to him and Davis was snapped shaking hands and suddenly seemed like a
rock star.
The
picture showed a different Davis and he liked it so much he used it as the
centre-piece of a winning election campaign later that year and standing
beside him, as always, was David MacLeod.
David
left government quietly three years later, after being convicted of
indecent assault, and went to Hollywood and his family helped him find
work on movies including associate producer of such as Reds, starring
Beatty, and Ishtar, with Dustin Hoffman.
But
he was convicted of more sex offences involving boys and fled while on
bail in 1989 and the FBI put him on its Most Wanted List, the only time
someone from Ontario politics has achieved such distinction.
A
decade later his frozen body was found on a Montreal street beside a can
of lighter fuel from which police believe he had been drinking – movies
seldom have told more tragic stories.
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