“We give politicians the power of life and death over us; we authorize them to send us to war, imprison us, tax us, regulate our activity, expropriate our houses, discipline our children, supervise our conduct, our reading, and our speech. We let these men make the laws that restrict us, direct the policemen who arrest us, choose the lawyers who prosecute us, appoint the judges who sentence us. … And we absent-mindedly bestow these absolute powers over our lives and welfare on a handful of men, in elections dominated by fanaticism and gangersterism, generally without asking of them smallest guarantee of intelligence or of elementary honesty.” — Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Approaches to Politics (1970)
Interesting words, spoken as they are by one of Canada’s most renowned politicians. I wonder what eloquent outrage the old man could summon in response to our abusive government of today. A recent poll, reported here by the CBC, suggests that Canadians generally don’t care about any of our leaders. I find it interesting that Jack Layton is the only federal leader who is approved of by more people (40%) than disapprove of him (29%). Interesting because he leads the party considered by many to be socialist, and by many more to be a vote FOR the political-right in a two party race.
If neither of our country’s viable political entities is able to summon a leader capable of even a net-positive approval rating, what does this say of our system of government? What does it say about us, it’s citizenry? Even as so many cry out for real leadership, would we ourselves measure-up in the eyes of Mr. Trudeau?
“The price of liberty, say the English, is eternal vigilance … strict limits must be placed on the right of one man to rule another. This indeed is the domain of politics.”
True enough. Somewhere in the last few decades, however, the “domain of politics” silently re-located to a domain more suitable to the success of its endeavors. It’s in the distance now, on a hill-top far away. Too far away, really, to be convenient in a world where convenience rules. So far away, in fact, that even the technology that created a global community can do little but provide our apathetic population with a distant glimpse of a spectacle as absurd as it is incomprehensible.
The price, as Mr. Trudeau asserted, is our liberty itself. That this most fundamental value is trampled increasingly with each passing month should not surprise us. Mr. Harper’s refusal to talk to media or to face critical debate, his deliberate polarization of the population, his emotionally manipulative over-simplification of complicated issues and his annual brushing-aside of our democracy’s checks and balances are all par for the course for those in pursuit of power.
Who, afterall, would become a Prime Minister, but one with a desire to influence and control – with a lust for power?
The failure is not Mr. Harper’s. He is doing as he should. The failure is our own. We sit on our numb hands, waiting for spring, while our democracy is disregarded, our economy is radically transformed and our international reputation evaporates.
Mediocre citizenship begets mediocre democracies.
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