Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians. 25 Years in the N.D.P. by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 17, Part Two.

     25 Years in the N.D.P. Part Two.

      Ted Jasper was the son of a cablevision salesman who was an intense working class Englishman from East End London. His mother was an upper middle class Englishwoman who had had an anxious character. Some of that anxiety was passed on to her son.
     Ted became partly handicapped in his early 30's. Like his father Ted had a terrible temper and like his dad he talked far too much. Jasper also ended up arguing with many people. Here too he was like his father who he grew up disagreeing with on many issues. All around him in the early 1970"s, there were other leftists he met. There were Maoists, anarchists, Trotskyists and Communists. Jasper ended up arguing with them all. He was also an abuser who abused men and especially women.
     "You were crazy when I knew you in the early 1970's," a former workmate of Jasper's told him when the two men met again years later. Jasper agreed.  In the late 1970's, Jasper went into therapy and tried to tone down his neuroses. Sometimes he succeeded but often his anxiety surfaced.
     Not only that, Jasper didn't want to get involved with the feuds and factions that plagued the N.D.P. back then. "Nobody trusts you," a high level N.D.P..'er told him. Another N.D.P. member said that Jasper was the slipperiest slimiest person he'd met in the party. Again Jasper had to admit to himself that this may have been partly true.
    Jasper was only really happy in the N.D.P.  when he was canvassing at election time. Here he took a page out of his father's life. He sold social democracy, he once said while his father sold cablevision. Yet his father had more success selling cablevision than his son had peddling the N.D.P. line. The B.C. N.D.P. sat in opposition for many years, losing one election after another to the right wing Social Credit Party and later to the conservative Liberals.
    To compound his problems, Jasper never found a career. Hobbled by his disability that caused him great pain in his knees, Jasper never found a career. He drifted from teaching to journalism at small papers to anti-poverty work. Sometimes he ended up on welfare. Yet he remained an N.D.P.'er and the few people who knew him in the party did like him as a canvasser.
     In his time in the party Jasper met many Members of the Legislative Assembly and some Members of Parliament. Most of these people were nice to him though there were exceptions. One man he met seemed to be schizophrenic. The first time Jasper met him, the man was arrogant, abusive and very irritable. The second time they met, the man was charming and very nice. "That man is strange," Jasper remarked to another N.D.P. member. The other N.D.P. member observed that the man was gay and was trying to hide it."He's under great pressure," the man told Jasper. "If I were you I'd stay away from him." Jasper followed this advice. 
    Another politician was very nice to Ted when he was raising money for the man. After that he never spoke to Ted again. One woman politician seemed like a nice person when she was climbing up the political ladder. Later she developed a very condescending character and talked to Jasper as if he was some form of low life. Jasper got used to the varied people he met in the N.D.P. and didn't let the encounters with  a few unkind politicians shake his faith in the N.D.P.  He remained committed to the party.