It is a mindless statement of politics that the voters get the government they deserve. That is such a false statement that it should be declared illegal to even say it. What we most often get across Canada at all levels of government is the government that is the least offensive under the circumstances. And sometimes there is just no choice at all.
An interesting sample of this at the municipal level is the Mayor Rob Ford fiasco in Toronto. Against the usual suspects in an open mayoralty race, Rob Ford was the easy first choice. He stood for something—such as it was and the yahoos running for nothing but their own egos quickly collapsed or got out of his way. Ford did not win the job of mayor as much as everyone else surrendered.
It is why municipal elections are such excellent training grounds for politicians. The challenge to every neophyte is to become known. Municipal election campaigns are run on name recognition.
Ontario and Quebec provincial elections recently are excellent examples of the wrong people winning election for the wrong reasons. Jean Charest the Liberal Premier of Quebec had run out of gas, allies and support in Quebec and the only left of centre party came out ahead of a bunch of right of centre parties. It was simple mathematics but Quebec Premier Pauline Marois is making good use of her play time in office to make points for separatism.
Meanwhile in Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty had run out of gas, allies and support with the Conservatives poised to take over. The only problem was that the Conservative leader was so inept and the New Democrat leader such a loser, the election ended up as a stalemate with a minority Liberal Government. Ontario voters really do not deserve everything that has happened since.
But then there is the federal government. Canada’s voters wear the Harper government as their hair shirt. Nobody deserves having these people in power. For too long now, the Conservatives have been giving Ottawa an enema designed to reduce spending on everything except the government in the House and Senate. They have stripped the civil service of everything, including its dignity. There is not a department in Ottawa that is not limping along barely able to do its job. If Finance Minister Jim Flaherty can meet his deficit targets in the next year, there will be a lot of blood lost from those program cuts.
The only spending this government does is on itself and its propaganda. It is a government of ideologues and sycophants. It is a government of privilege and entitlement. It is anti-democratic and uses the procedures of government to hide truths from the voters. The only facts are their propaganda. It is a government with no empathy for people. It rules. It does not care.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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