Wow. What an exciting weekend the end of April has been! First the Royal Wedding — a fairy tale on the telly. Then the killing of Osama bin Ladin. Now a Conservative sweep, the crushing of the Bloc, the decimation of the Liberal Party and the rise of NDP Orange. At least in principle.
We’ll see how many of those new NDP MPs actually have the jam to handle the challenges of being in political office. Some just had to vacation during the campaign — unlike Stephen Harper who pulled his Mom in to do child care service while he and Laureen zipped back and forth across the country.
Who knew that the PM also struggles to find appropriate child care?
I am impressed with the diplomacy and dignity of Harper’s victory speech. He could so easily have been sneering or filled with contempt for the ‘losers’ — many of whom ganged up on him through the campaign. But he was not.
He spoke highly of his competitors and colleagues and the process of democracy — which is a process measured by participation, not just the wins or losses.
Jack Layton came off as a great guy during the campaign. His cutting remarks about Iggy’s absence in the house are probably a main reason why Michael Ignatieff lost.
By contrast, when you look at Harper’s record over the past decade, it’s been one of setting clear objectives and then slowly and patiently working toward them. His is definitely not the cult of personality, his is the party and person of substance.
Not everyone agrees with his approach, obviously — and yet like “Dad” who has to set sensible boundaries for the ‘voter kids’ — Harper relied on facts and straight talk, while Layton’s success can also be attributed to his golden ‘chicken in every pot’ and ‘yes to everything you want’ sell.
Layton is a very personable guy on camera.
I tried the equivalent of his approach on a kid the other day “What if I told you I would give you a Nintendo 3-D, free movie tickets for a year and $500 bucks to spend on anything you want. Would you vote for me?” Of course the answer was a resounding “Yes.”
Then I explained that these wonderful promises only had one problem when it comes to putting them in a political campaign context. The government has no money of its own. It’s your money that will be buying the treats and paying for the promises. So fortunately Layton did not get elected PM.
We would be broke real fast with all his idealistic promises. Now we just have to put up with a few years of watching wannabe new New Democrat MPs learn the ropes ... or not.
A big part of politics is commitment and hard work, something those vacationing new-NDPers will have to learn the hard way.
I don’t think it is easy to have to fly back and forth to Ottawa dozens of times a year, to cut endless ribbons, give speeches on every topic under the sun, be asked questions you can’t possibly know off the cuff and then slammed publicly for being uninformed.
I don’t think it is easy to buck up Parliament and party support staff who have to spend hours on the phone with ‘frequent fliers’ who have nothing but complaints about nothing when nothing can be done about the issue; who have to research minute details in order to provide citizens with service; who are often harangued or cursed, belittled or allegedly bribed to help more, who have to orchestrate complex schedules and logistics, dozens of documents and letters, signatures, certificates, soirees and signings — all with a smile and firmly polite responses of a civil servant.
But thank heavens we have many capable men and women who have agreed to take on these tasks and lead, manage and administer the country.
Thus, I salute the democratic process of this great nation, and all who are part of its intricate springs and gears.
To make the process even more effective, to get even better results, we need to teach our children how to think critically about media messages. We need to teach them how Parliament really works from an early age, and we need to firmly ground them in history.
We need to teach them that you are not only responsible to vote in society, but to be thoughtful and responsible for how you vote as well.
If we proudly sing “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee” at hockey games, then maybe we better be up to the task when it comes to election day — and every day. The vote maybe over, but effective democracy is a daily process of participation.
Michelle Stirling Anosh is a Ponoka-based freelance columnist.