Should "Timmy's" be boycotted?

Catchfire wrote:

BB, I went to a talk by Thomas King a few weeks back. He's an incredible novelist and storyteller, and he spoke briefly of his stint through two election campaigns where he ran for the NDP in Guelph. He said that he always believed that telling stories was the only way to change things for the better, but he had been telling them for a long time and the changes he wanted seem impossibly far away. So he decided to run for public office. He called it the worst decision he ever made. He finished dead last (behind the Greens!) because he told people the truth, and an election is no time to be telling the truth. For a writer like Thomas King to give up writing for elected office would be a crime and detriment to Canada. So I'm not sure "effective" is the right adjective there.

Well frankly, with all due respect to Tom King, that's a bit of a tall tale in and of itself. Tom came in dead last in Guelph -- including in all eight polls on campus at the university where he teaches -- primarily in my view because he pretty well stopped campaigning about a month before the election. He's not a young man, and the by-election had been anticipated much earlier, so he was on the campiagn trail for I think over two years. During that prolonged period some life events intervened for him, as they are wont to do. When the by-election finally rolled around, the NDP was doing great and the paper seemed to be supporting him. Then there was a bogus CPC poll irresponsibly reported, the general election was called cancelling the by-election, and Tom dropped out of sight.

I will also say that while he may have been speaking truth, it wasn't that, it was the whole "story-telling" analogy schtick that really got a bit old over time. A straight answer would have been nice once in a while.

So, maybe gifted writers aren't cut out for electoral politics. Maybe it is only lawyers and business people who really have the appetite to win elections, outside of the local arena anyway -- we elected a full-slate left-wing municipal council, who are changing their colours to a disappointing degree now that they're in power.

BTW the mayor's ex-husband owns a local coffee roaster, on a co-op model with employee shareholders, using all fair-trade beans, and they're doing very well thank you! Just opened their second location halfway between two Timmy's! And the coffee is even stronger ;-). The pastries are hand-made by a local ice cream business and they are to die for. So I go there.