Growing up in the U.S., a political junkie from a young age, I was drawn to Thomas Jefferson. He was an intelligent firebrand. His writings on human rights and freedoms helped spawn the American Revolutionary War. He was the principal hand that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He died on the fourth of July. Good trick.
I wasn’t impressed with the disconnect between his words about all men being created equal and his ownership of men and women, but what wealthy, Virginia plantation owner didn’t? The eyes of the present are a poor judge of the mores of the past.
But I draw the line at his observation, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” I don’t believe you or I deserve the government(s) that have been elected in recent memory. And while I can’t fault the tautological reasoning of the statement, one step back from the actual election is where the fault lies—do we really deserve the choices presented to us at election time?
In Canada, party leaders are chosen by a few “members” of each party, presented to the rest of us at election time and, as has been the case for as long as I remember, are elevated to the position of Prime Minister in an exercise best known as a selection of the lesser of two evils.
Is this really what we deserve?
Most Canadians apparently don’t think so. A recent Nanos Research poll, conducted for and reported by The Globe and Mail, underscores our current undeserved choices. Across the country, 53 per cent of those polled would like to see someone other than Justin Trudeau leading the Liberal party. And in the nothing-to-brag-about race, 51 per cent would like to see someone other than Pierre Poilievre spearheading the Conservative Party.
In a different time and different place, numbers like those would result in leaders falling on their swords... or staging a coup, suspending civil liberties and declaring themselves dictator for life. Gladly, we’re in this time and this place.
But those poll results are probably coloured by this time. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Richard III, now is the summer of our discontent.
Every time we step into a grocery store it seems everything we want to buy costs more. Noticeably more. Painfully more, in many cases. Whether your tastes run to steak or KD, the jump in price seems to be relentless. The overwhelming food bank statistics across the country bear this out. And at the same time, we’re entertained, well, outraged, by the leaders of the grocery cartels telling Parliamentary committees they’re just makin’ ends meat themselves... don’t bother to look at our stock prices, just listen to our lies.
Meanwhile, the country is, literally, on fire. From coast to coast to coast, unprecedented wildfires are devouring unprecedented amounts of forests, and doing so sooner in the year than historically. Staying with the juxtaposition of winter and summer, U.S. weather people now joke about the smoke coming down from Canada instead of winter’s cold. Or is that smoke just payback for all the acid rain they sent our way for decades? Either way, the amount of carbon dioxide released by wildfires is making a joke out of the puny efforts of people to reduce their own carbon footprints.
Many Canadians rate climate change high on their things-to-worry-about list. Many are freaked out about their inability to find and afford a place to live, whether they’re in the market to rent or buy. Wages and salaries can’t keep up with the cost of living. Immigration is either the solution or the problem, maybe both.
But our leaders continue to choose not to lead. They’d rather snipe at each other, try to score political points, drive a cultural wedge further and deeper into the national psyche, fiddle while Canada burns... or floods... or both.
We deserve this?
Digging deeper into the Nanos numbers, it would appear the PM has more to worry about than PP. Fewer than half the respondents who tend to vote Liberal, 42 per cent, want to see Justin continue as leader. But it was only in May he said he was the guy who was going to be at the helm at the next election.
And despite his penchant to strengthen the impression he’s a wingnut every time he posts a video or opens his mouth, PP enjoys the support of 71 per cent of Conservative voters. Those numbers probably provide cold comfort, given the Conservative thumping in June’s four byelections and the undercurrent of Conservative voters who find his populist nonsense off-putting and too Trumpian.
So how in the world do we deserve either of these leaders? The country celebrated passing the many-zeroed 40 million residents last month. That’s a pretty large number of people from which to choose party leaders. Despite the law of large numbers, you’d be hard-pressed to find any consensus on a person to replace either of the two leaders. And many people wouldn’t be able to even name a possible replacement.
The disengagement and dearth of choices is likely emblematic of our wonky first-past-the-post election system. It was not for no reason Trudeau’s first broken promise was to scrap that broken system. Without it, he wouldn’t be PM, and he wouldn’t be in a position to likely continue to be PM after the next election. On the other hand, our Parliament might well be as stable as, say, Italy’s.
Having “won” the last two elections with fewer votes—but more seats—than the Conservatives, and having hammered out a natural supply-and-confidence agreement with the NDP who, regardless of how slow and prodding they view the Liberals, understand they have a much better chance of influencing their policies than they ever will with the Conservatives, it remains very likely the outcome of the next election will be another Liberal minority government. With an even greater gap in the overall number of votes.
So whether we deserve the government we elect or whether we deserve better, we shall plod along in mediocrity toward an uncertain future. After all, we are Canadian.
