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From the economy to the environment to Afghanistan, our country has to face up to a number of big challenges if we have any hope of thriving this coming decade. That’s why my big New Year’s wish is to see a federal leader emerge who can not only competently manage the government but who can bring Canadians together and inspire us to reach even greater heights.
Because the ones we have now don’t appear to be up to the job.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has certainly proved himself to be a competent manager, even though he seems to be something of a control freak. While the government is constantly doing things that drives one group of people or the other nuts, it does seems to be functioning reasonably well.
But Harper operates in a way that inspires cynicism. His latest move was to once again prorogue (a fancy word for shut down) parliament. He’s like a kid with a new favourite toy.
You might remember how Harper first used the prorogation tactic at the end of 2008 to avoid facing a confidence vote his minority government was certain to lose. At the time his supporters said -with at least some justification- that the move was defensible because it prevented the Liberals and NDP from forming a coalition government the majority of Canadians didn’t want.
But the maneuver also convinced many people that Harper had abandoned his principles in his bid to get and hold onto power.
This time, proroguing parliament prevents a parliamentary committee from asking any more embarrassing questions about the torture of detainees handed over to Afghan officials by our armed forces. But it also stalls a bunch of crime legislation introduced by the government which it previously said it wanted passed as quickly as possible.
By and large, Canadians are simply shrugging their shoulders, because this kind of behaviour has come to be par for the course. It’s what we expect from our politicians.
But my guess is that voter turnout will be even lower in the next election than the 59.1 per cent who showed up last time. Cynicism, I’m afraid, leads to disengagement.
The man who would be king meanwhile, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, has so far failed to inspire much more than groans and head shaking. He managed to take his party from a virtual tie in the polls with the Conservatives to a place where those Canadians who do bother voting are likely to give Harper a majority government just so they won’t have to deal with this nonsense again for another four years.
Ignatieff managed to tank his own popularity by promising to bring down the government at the earliest possible moment at a time when the only thing that mattered to Canadians was getting out of the recession.
The situation was made worse by the fact that Ignatieff’s only pitch to Canadians was: Harper is doing a bad job and I can do better. It was a tough angle to take, especially because on the one front that really mattered, the economy, Harper appeared to be doing fine. What’s more, Ignatieff didn’t bother to say what he would do differently.
In his pre-political life, Ignatieff was a prolific author. He should remember one of the primary lessons learned by novice writers: Show it, don’t say it. In other words, don’t just tell us you can do better, you have to demonstrate it.
Because Canadians are still waiting for a leader, of any political stripe, to demonstrate that they’re in it for more than just themselves and their friends.
adrian@kelowna.com
250-575-3517
4 Responses to “Adrian Nieoczym: Looking for inspiration on the federal political scene”
Tags: Conservative Party, Kelowna, liberal party, Michael Ignatieff, stephen harper
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- it’s not looking for new leaders we need to be doing, it’s to start understanding that Democracy starts at home, and do it ourselves – more on everything here – What Happened? http://www.rudemacedon.ca/what-happened.html
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You’ve hit the nail on the head.
Unfortunately for Canadians, there is no alternative to Harper and his political ploys to keep power. The other “leaders” in the House of Commons by their lack of action, have slid rather quickly into apathy with the rest of us.
The next great hope is being placed on Justin Trudeau? So far, he just has a famous last name…
I wonder who many MP’s actually care to vote like the rest of us? I diligently vote in every election and shake my head at the amount of apathy, but I find myself being disillusioned at the present state of affairs in Canada.
Harper’s Conservatives do absolutely nothing for the good of this country, everything is a political game for them and the other parties are dumb enough to play along…
I don’t see how we are going to change things in Canada, fire the Governor General? As long as Harper can just keep proroguing Parliament to avoid answering the hard questions or to stay in power, we’re in for a long decade.
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Jason,
FYI, Canada’s parliament has been prorogued 105 times in our history. Nothing new here. Suggest that you engage brain before putting mouth in gear. You and some others are listening too closely to the oppositions propaganda.
We have one of the most competent PMs in our history. Take a look at our economy and compare it to others in the industrialized world- we are no.1 in nearly every category, only a left leaning loonie would trade our economist PM for a history professor who hasn’t even lived in the country for most of his adult life.
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How can people say this country is doing well? We are losing our middle class. There is a bigger gap between the rich and the poor. Our child poverty rate is apalling and our health care is being taken away bit by bit.
I do vote and I am tired of having to choose the lesser of the evils when I go to vote. There are no viable parties out there. All of them have lost touch with the people. Harper as far as I am concerned is a total control freak and I am scared to see him with a majority government.
The people in this country have started to behave like spoiled rotten children who have been given everything from their ancestors who fought hard for the rights that we have. Because it has all been handed to us we do not appreciate any of it.
I remember watching on tv years ago when the blacks in South Africa were given the chance to vote. People lined up for days to vote yet in this country people sit back and we have less and less voter turnout and yet those people are the first to complain when things go wrong.Most people these days do not seem to care as long as they are doing alright and their family and friends are doing alright. Until we as a society become filled with the sense of responsibilty for each others welfare instead of just ourselves we will continue to go downhill to our very destruction.
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.” Robert Hutchins
Adlai E. Jr. Stevenson.
“Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.” Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
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