By Owen Thornton

PREAMBLE:

In the 2007 Ontario Government Election campaign political parties are creating youtube videos slamming the opposition. Nothing has changed.  Human Kindness, credibility and leadership qualities the voters are looking for is still being sought but remains unfound.  If you want to win our hearts by being noble and re-establishing politics as a noble profession read on ...

 

Civic disengagement began its downhill slide in the late 1950s.  Somewhere in the middle of the past 60 years, political campaigns in Canada took on the elements of American-style attack politics.  It appears to be easier to slam the other side than to come up with a viable, honourable and truth-filled political platform of your own.  The overall decrease in loyalty, trust, and respect for one another across our entire society and the increase of malaise (illness, depression), combined with a distinct inability to muster up enough energy to care to make a black mark on a page (vote) starts at the very top of a nation.  The lack of human kindness in both federal and provincial/territorial politics is a leading indicator pointing towards the direction of our society.  For the sake of our society and in the name of human kindness attack politics must stop.

 

Today voters stay away from polls in droves.  Combine this fact with the following fact and you discover a massive conundrum:  In recent years we have once again began to pay tribute and honour to our war heroes from WWI and WWII.  Not voting is a significant way of disrespecting our war heroes and the war dead.  Thousands died so that we might have the right to vote.  Some massive negative elements have combined to overpower our duty to society (voting) in the wake of the fact that we are more aware than ever of our liberties and freedoms (the ability to vote).  So what has happened that we no longer desire to vote for what was once an honourable profession?

 

Let us take a detour for a moment and envision Canada as our three traditional national political parties would see us today.  One would think that each time the blue takes over from the red, or vice versa, that Canada was recently a hideous place to live and that the entire nation must be converted back onto the right course.  It would seem that we should have two different forms of government each one with its own rules of governance and tax laws etc.  Once a new party takes over, all of the former government would be completely shelved (evil) and the new order would be dusted off and reestablished (good).  We would be, in effect a country in a Dr. Jekyll and a Mr. Hyde state of affairs.  We would be a red government (with usurped brown ideologies) and then after an election we would be a blue government (with usurped brown ideologies).

 

Not only is this vision of our nation completely fallacious it is ludicrous.  A nation couldn’t survive that way.  It couldn’t build anything if every time there was an election we spent ½ of our time tearing down the old and bringing in the new … only to do that all over again the next time there was a change in power.  In addition, the actual people doing the work of government and often making recommendations to the party in power today are the same people who were working there under the former governments.

 

And yet, because we have a party in power and an ‘opposition’ those who sit in opposition seem to feel they must oppose things, even when just, true and right policies are initiated: even when the opposition, were it in power, would do exactly the same thing.  Is there any wonder why we lose faith in our leadership?  How can a people believe in someone who votes on a party line against something which is good, simply because they sit in opposition to it?

 

We have seen situations akin to the following: One party in power commits troops to a mission and then loses an election only to ridicule the existing government about having troops on that mission.  Please don’t dwell on the meat of the example, but on the ludicrous nature of it.  We have all seen these situations, whatever the specifics might be.  And we all sit and wonder how anyone can run a federal or provincial/territorial party in such a way.  And the degree of righteous indignation and fervor opposition parties bring to the table, when months before they were doing the exact thing they now ridicule is both shocking and heartbreaking.  It is shocking because we see that politics then, isn’t about doing the right thing, but about doing that which keeps you in, or gets you back to power.  And it is heartbreaking because each time we see people doing these things, our loyalty, trust and faith diminishes along with our desire to vote.  And when our nation’s top leaders are seen doing these things, it teaches all of us that it is okay to be mean-spirited and selfish.  Well no more, I say!

 

What is Canada then, if it is not a dualistic series of two separate government agendas striving to overcome one another?  Canada is one of the top five countries to live in, in the entire world (it was the top country to live in, in the world for many years in succession).  Canada is an amalgam of all the governments that came before.  Canada succeeds because one party follows another and doesn’t destroy and dismantle everything.  They really only retool, tweak what existed before along with initiating some new concepts.

 

We must accept that if we’re a blue politician or voter, that the red folks (and vice-versa) are not hell bent on destroying our society, only that they want to build it up with a different vision.  We are one of the greatest nations in the world because all political parties believe Canadians have a shared vision of a social democracy where all people are treated fairly and equally.

 

The things which bring many politicians to a great lather and horrific and embarrassing debates are the splitting of hairs to the general public.  We cannot work up the excitement and fervor of our leaders as we’re too busy trying to live our own lives within the context of the nation they have created for us.  We must entrust to them, the governance of our society so that life can be just a little easier tomorrow than it was yesterday.  It is not what our governments do which beat us down, it is the way they do the things that harm our collective psyche.

 

Before getting to the how-to correct the situation, let us examine a one-person political faux pas to see how destructive attack politics can be to all concerned.  In a recent by-election the winner made a judgmental statement saying that only the green party had an honourable campaign, while the other two were dishonourable.  There is no room in Canada for this kind of statement.  In pointing out that the other two party canditates were cads, the winner made themselves a cad for pointing it out.  It would have been better had the winner stopped half way through that statement.  “Only the green party ran an honourable campaign against me.”  However, this in itself implies that the other two were dishonourable.  Better yet, it would have been good to say, “I celebrate the tough hard campaign that was fought by the green candidate.”

 

So there is rule number one.  My momma taught me if you can’t say something good about someone, say nothing at all.  Why in the world would anyone desire to give someone else the spotlight by mentioning the opposition?  Also by slandering the opposition you make yourself look small in the process.  I was honourable, ‘nyah-nyah, but you weren’t!”

 

Two, make a point of knowing your opponents.  Know what they stand for.  Also, know what you stand for and be able to highlight the differences to people in a simple way that doesn’t slander or take away from your opponents.  Know how your opponents voted on specific, related issues.  If they voted one way in the house while in power and voted against similar things whilst in opposition, there is an issue of discrepancy with integrity there.  Never slam someone as a person for a flip-flop, merely point out the flip-flop and let the voters determine the rest.  If you’re going to do this, ensure you never flip-flop your votes because what goes around, comes around.

 

Three, know what you are doing and willing to do in power and focus on the benefits to the people, rather than tell us what the opposition did and how it hurt us.  If your platform and the benefits are viable and made clear, your point will win.

 

Four, do your best to do the right thing, rather than doing whatever it takes to stay in power.  Having power for the sake of it tarnishes your image and destroys our societal trust and faith in one another.  It is better to lose with honour than win by deceit.  Build up the nation by your acts of integrity, rather than clinging to power with desperate lies and blatant gift-giving.  Giving gifts might win you some votes (who wouldn’t want them), but you will lose respect at the end of the day (we all see through them).

 

Five, never defend an attack on your character.  Likewise never defend your character by counter-attacking theirs.  Admit that you are human and have made mistakes … just like your opponent will make mistakes while they are in power.  We all set out to do our best.  No one wakes up in the morning and thinks, “How can I screw up the country today?”  It is not about the mistakes we all make.  It is about the quality and the clarity of our vision for a healthy nation that will win the day.  “I admit I have made mistakes.  I will continue to make mistakes.  Everyone does.  People are not judged on the mistakes we make but on the effort of trying to do what is right and by tenaciously holding a clear, solid vision for our nation and doing everything in our power to make that vision become a reality.  My vision is …”

 

Six (and here’s a gimme) cease making promises.  The entire nation is tired of broken promises.  Sadly, what we, the voting public have learned, is that opposition parties cannot make promises because they truly have no idea of the specific status of the nation or province/territory until they assume power … and then they realize they cannot fulfill their promises.  We know these things.  We know promises will last about as long as it takes for new parties to assess reality and to learn the promises cannot be fulfilled.  Instead talk of vision and the direction of your compass.  Of the things you would do should you be given the opportunity.  If you do this along with the things listed above, you will win respect and votes.  I believe spin-doctors have convinced political leaders that promises are more specific and powerful than the vagueness of a belief or a vision or a promised direction: but when promises are broken and the people are disheartened, this is a greater disservice to the people than speaking about intended goals and directions.  Talk about reality (your vision), not about la-la land (meaningless promises).  As a people, we’re cynical enough to know la-la land no longer exists.

 

And seven, do the honorable thing.  This fall, I joined a political party to help a friend.  The party cashed the membership cheque two days before it would be good for the remainder of 2006 and all of 2007.  Therefore two days after I’d joined the party for one year, I was being asked to renew for another year.  There just seems to be something wrong with this scenario.  The problem was I couldn’t even convince anyone of this fact.  Membership was only $10 so I was asked to cough up the dough for next year … like everyone else.  Me?  It wasn’t about money.  It was about human kindness and what is just and right.  When you can’t even win your point along these lines, is it any wonder we’ve become distrustful, non-voting cynics?

 

Best of luck to all political candidates in the upcoming Provincial Election we will be holding in 2007.  Remember as you vie for power that you are a moral leader as much as you are a political one and that those of us wishing for more human kindness in the world … well …we’re watching you.