Phil Edmonston: Passing the torch

Edmonston is probably better known as the author of Lemon-Aid than as the last elected NDP candidate in Quebec.

Passing the torch
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 | 05:46 PM ET
When Thomas Mulcair won Montreal's Outremont riding for the NDP on Monday, there was a victory celebration taking place a long, long way away.

Phil Edmonston, the one-time consumer advocate who won the party's only other Quebec seat back in 1990, was keeping track of the results from Panama via the internet.

Best known for his Lemon-Aid series of car-buying guidebooks, Edmonston is also a former U.S. Army medic who now does volunteer work in Panama City.

He says he's happy for Mulcair, a former provincial Liberal, who he credits with having "political experience, integrity and a good working team." But he has a word of warning for the NDP: don't get your hopes too high.

"I think we read too much into this if we say one seat in Outremont, just as in my case, one seat in Chambly, means that the NDP is going to be the party that's going to take all the marbles in the next election. There's a lot of work that has to be done."

Edmonston's advice for growing the party in Quebec: "Go for the radical middle. Stay away from the crazies, the one-issue candidates or the people who have agendas that are not really agendas mainstream, average Canadians can identify with."


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