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The following is the speech delivered by Andrew Cash at the CashForToronto kickoff fundraiser at Lula Lounge, January 22nd.

Thank you so much for coming

This is an incredible honour to have so many of you here tonight.

I’ve been told that political fundraisers don’t sell out but we’ve got a sold out venue tonight. Let’s make this the first of many times we do things here that people say you just can’t do.

Thank you to all the volunteers for making this night happen

People are so busy just getting by in this town that it is wonderful and humbling  to witness the amount of time and energy and commitment folks have put into, not just this event, but our campaign thus far.

And I especially want to thank the musicians for coming and donating their time for free. When you have a problem with your drains you hire a plumber and you don’t expect he or she to do the work for free. And though musicians generally don’t make a ton of dough they are always being asked to play for free. Being a musician myself I’m very mindful of that fact, though it hasn’t stopped me from asking you to play for free tonight. Thank you so much. Many of you are some of my oldest and dearest friends. Thanks Jason Collett for wrangling all these folks. And I don’t mind plugging Jason’s new record, out in March. It is fantastic.

It is important for me to launch our campaign here in the context of a music night in a club downtown

since it is in places like this all across Toronto that represent the roots of my own journey to this moment tonight.

And it is why many people have asked me—Andrew what are you doing—you, in politics—come on, look at your hair.

And it is true that for me and no doubt for many of you here tonight, partisan politics has been a turn off. I’ve never bought into the idea that one tribe has all the answers and the other side has none. One tribe is always right and the other is evil, dumb and incompetent though the current government is testing this philosophy dearly.

No, the partisan blood sport has never really turned me on and it has turned too many voters off. It is part of the reason that in Davenport the voter turn out is one of the lowest in the city.

So why do this?

Like you I lived through the Harris years. Finally we voted those bums out of Ontario and we thought—OK job done.

Nope.

They never stopped working, they never stopped organizing. They kept raising money, 20 dollars here, 30 there. They thought; they listened; they built bridges. They sought allies and here they are now- stronger than ever, with more power than ever, more mean spirited and small minded than ever- in the front benches and the back room of the Harper government.

Folks, they have a vision for this country and they are prepared to work night and day until they see that vision realized.

We have a vision too; a vision of a progressive, balanced country and a progressive, dynamic, green city. The question is: are we prepared to work as hard as they do, well actually we need to work harder because there is so much ground to recover—to see our vision realized. Are we prepared to work  night and day like they do?

I think our current reps–those Mps we have been time and time again sending to Ottawa to represent us  in Toronto– have answered that question very loudly and the answer is no. They are not prepared to work night and day, to rebuild this country, to work to re energize this city, looking into the future and acting in the present. And we know they aren’t up to the job because, for goodness sake we’ve given them so many opportunities to prove themselves.

We are here in Toronto—save for two dynamic city builders Jack Layton and Olivia Chow- the other 20 seats go Liberal time and time again, not forgetting of course, that wonderful couple years when Peggy Nash represented Parkdale High Park. But over the last 15 years what have all these Liberals delivered for Toronto? When have you seen a Liberal MP from Toronto stand up for this city. They don’t. They think it isn’t worth it—since the rest of this country loves to hate Toronto, our elected reps, present company excluded, fear the political risks of fighting for the Toronto—imagine that happening in any other city or region in the county?

If they had been standing up for this city well maybe it wouldn’t now cost 3 buck for a bus ticket on the ttc.

Maybe we could breath the air in this town on a hot July afternoon instead of fighting a crazy plan to run 400 dirty diesel trains a day up the west end of the city and through this riding.

Maybe families could afford to live in this city.

Maybe so many of our seniors would not be living in poverty

Maybe the issues facing the urban workforce, the backbone of Toronto’s economy would get some face time.

Indeed when I look around the room it strikes me that so many of us in Toronto cobble a living together working several parttime jobs, or on short contracts or are generally self employed.

I’m talking about the musicians here, the bartenders,

I’m talking about shop owners and entrepreneurs like Jose, the owner of the Lula,

I’m talking about the filmmaker who drinks at the Gladstone and the single mother with two parttime jobs, 3 kids and has to deal with the Dufferin bus at rush hour.

I’m talking about the web designer and the graphic artist who don’t know where their next paycheck is coming from,

I’m talking about the general labourer who is up at 5 in the morning for 10 bucks an hour and the supply teacher who waits at the phone every morning for work.

None of us have extended benefits, none of us have maternal or paternal leave, noone can book off work to look after a sick relative. If you are a temp worker and your kid is sick and has to stay home from school—well you just don’t get paid until your child has recovered. If you are a general contractor or a roofer and you get hurt at work do you have disability pension?

My guess is that most of you here, and most Torontonians who are, as we are, precariously employed have no pension.

And it isn’t as though these issues are impossible to work out.

Quebec’s self employed pay into an insurance plan that allows for  maternity leave.

Government’s all over the world are investing in clean electric trains. Vancouver has a new electric train to the airport.

And what about stable operating funding for the TTC!. Even GW Bush spent more on public transit than the Libs or Cons have.

So we know the answer is political will and the only way that government acts is if its feet are held to the fire.  We know that elected Liberal members in Toronto have not done that.

They aren’t showing up for us here in Toronto and we need to change that. And we  know we can change that here.

Now, I know often folks will stand up at this sort of event and say—ya, we can win this riding—we only got 4% of the vote last time but this time we can win.

That is not what is happening here in Davenport.

Folks, we CAN win this riding.

And we will win this riding IF

we are willing to back up our vision of this city, this country with serious hard work.

We need to work harder than anyone else!

We need all of you here who have never been to a political fundraiser or been involved in the process before—infact we need you most of all.

We need all the party veteran in Davenport on board—you’ve got the battle scars, you’ve built the momentum here  that has helped to sell out this club tonight. I’m a rookie—we need your experience, skills and wisdom.

We need progressives of all stripes, Liberal and Green and yes even the two or three progressive conservatives out there.

We need everyone who cares about a city with clean air, clean water, a well funded and functioning public transit system, and a dynamic workforce that is supported by government policies that ackownledge that we are the future of urban employment.

We need all fair minded Torontonians on board who believe it is wrong the way so many of our seniors are living, who believe that poverty in this city is a blight, not an acceptable line on a ledger.

I believe we can win this riding.

If you are fed up with Harper and want to really do something about it; if you want progressive, dynamic, active and engaged representation here in Davenport and right across this city then I believe together we can have that here.

Tonight is a great start.

Thank you.