‘The only punk band ever reunited in the House of Commons’

Jim Rankin profiles Andrew Cash, the new NDP MP for Davenport and the former frontman of L’Etranger.

He’s promising to speak up for the riding and the city, and stand up for the worker, the underdog and the downtrodden — something, really, that he has done through music ever since he was a teenager growing up in Scarborough. 

Cash, 48, was in an ’80s Toronto punk band called L’Etranger, a group of Catholic boys who worshipped at the church of Joe Strummer and The Clash and belted out songs of protest over social injustices of the day. Know who else was in that band? Charlie “Chuck” Angus, newly re-elected NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay. Yeah, the band’s about to get back together — on the floor of the House of Commons.

Here, via Julie Penner, is the 1983 interview with two-thirds of L’Etranger.