On a silver platter
How to Lose an Election
The 1993 Canadian Federal Election was one of the most interesting elections ever. The main reason for this is because it included one of the biggest defeats in the history of Western civilization. Before the election, the Progressive Conservative Party (PCs) controlled 156 of the 395 seats in the House of Commons. The House of Commons is Canada’s parliament. After the election, they only had two seats. How was this possible? Well, Kim Campbell (and the PC Party) basically handed the victory to Jean Chrétien on a silver platter.
To understand this story, a quick Canadian culture lesson is needed. Canada has a handful of political parties. They have changed their names, combined, and new parties have arisen. In 1993, there were five major parties. The PC party controlled the House of Commons. The Liberal Party had the second most seats. The NDP Party and the Reform Party were also important (for stealing some votes), but not important for our story. The Bloc Quebecois is a party that wanted to separate from Canada. The previous Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, retired before the election and appointed Kim Campbell to take over as Prime Minister. She was Canada’s first woman Prime Minister. She inherited a bad situation though. The economy was in ruins and the support for the PC party was quite low. However, she (and her party) made things much worse.
Campbell's Mistakes
Campbell was well-liked by the public, but she had a reputation for being too honest. This hurt the PC party because she said the economy would not improve until the 2000s. She also said, “an election is no time to discuss serious issues.” To make things worse, the PC party put out some advertisements that attacked Campbell’s biggest rival, Jean Chrétien. He had a disease called Bell’s Palsy which paralyzed half of his face. The attack ads were not meant to make fun of his face, but the way the scenes were cut, it seemed like that’s what they were doing. The PC party lost any hope of winning the election after these ads and effectively gave the government to the Liberal party on a silver platter.
Meaning
If you are given something on a silver platter means that didn’t have to try hard to get it. The assumption is that the person does not deserve the thing because they didn’t earn it. It doesn’t have to be a physical gift though. You could be handed a job or an opportunity on a silver platter as examples. A platter is a serving tray, like a large plate. The phrase is similar to being born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
Origin
There are a few things to consider about the phrase, served on a silver platter. It is easy to see the connection to wealth. First, the platter is made of silver, something that most poor people don’t have access to. Also, the person is being served. Again, this implies the person is rich enough to be waited on. However, it also has the feeling of laziness. The person does not have to get the food or prepare it. It is delivered to them. The idiom, on a silver platter, does not have to be applied to a rich person, but thinking about a rich monarch being served while they sit lazily on their throne helps illustrate how the phrase is used. Sometimes it feels like they don’t deserve the treatment.
The phrase on a silver platter goes back to the biblical story of Herod and John the Baptist. Herod had John beheaded. It is believed that a close acquaintance and dancer (Salome) asked Herod to serve John the Baptist’s head to her on a silver platter. He did.
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References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Canadian_federal_election
https://www.cbc.ca/archives/the-political-attack-ad-that-backfired-badly-in-1993-1.5291777
https://electionstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/1994Impact_JohnstonBlais.pdf
https://www.archyde.com/origin-of-the-expressions-o-k-thank-you-and-on-a-silver-platter-by-juan-gossain-music-and-books-culture/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beheading_of_John_the_Baptist
https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/23/messages/711.html