I admit it, I am a political junkie. It's hard not to be, since political community is an ever-present part of what it means to live in society with fellow human beings. I'm also a proud Canadian, but I must confess from the outset that I am not a fan of the Conservative party in charge of the government on behalf of our citizenry. I, like many Canadians, have lost faith in and respect for the leadership we are receiving, and have become disenchanted at least, and enraged at worst, with the judgement being employed and the decisions that are being made and not made on our behalf.
This week I have been reading John Ralston Saul's impressive work, "A Fair Country - Telling Truths about Canada". I strongly recommend it to all Canadians as a very worthy read. Some of John's observations relate to language and the utilization of words in languages, as well as in regions of the world and Canada, and their influence on culture as well as on one another within a shared culture. I have also been following a fair amount of news recently referencing the, "Stephen Harper Government". It struck a chord with me this evening that personality politics in Canada is damaging our democracy severly and needs to be altered promptly.
Stephen Harper, as leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed as Prime Minister of Canada, on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen Elizebeth II. It is not and never has been "Stephen Harper's Government" or even the "Conservative's Government" and we need to stop allowing these individuals and the media to refer to them as such. It is the "Prime Minister's Government", and the "Government of Canada". It does not belong to Stephen Harper or the Conservative party for the duration of their majority mandate and its formal identity should never be attached to individuals or their political identities.
These individuals were elected to represent Canadians in OUR federal government public offices and have been entrusted to serve OUR Government of Canada while they are holding those public office's in good standing, regardless of their political stripes. The only time we should be experiencing the partisan nature of Canada's political system is during the election phase. At all other times, the political stripes of the individuals and groups should be subordinated/eliminated from public discourse in respect to the actions and initiatives of the governments that are there to serve us all, regardless of partisan values and priorities.
A mandate to govern is not the same thing as a mandate to proseltize and Canadians do not need the perpetual focus on the divisiveness inherent within the partisan nature of the current environment and practice of Canadian politics. Outside of the election phase, all Canadians want their governments focused on good judgement and management of their collective best interests. The privilege to govern is not a license to enter a perpetual sparing match with the other representatives of the People appointed to govern on behalf of the People. All MPs, MLAs and Councillors, once elected, are there to work collaboratively and cooperatively with their peers to achieve the best interests of the citizenry as a whole. Failing to keep their focus on that quest, or allowing it to be distracted by partisan politics, should be grounds for recall and/or banishment.
We also need to take the personalities out of all references to Federal, Provincial and Municipal publicly elected officials. When the Minister of Health speaks on a podium at a luncheon, or releases a media press release on a new law, regulation or initiative, we should not be attaching an individual personality or political party identity to the vessel fulfilling a function on behalf of all Canadians. Rona Ambrose's personality, and that of all other public servants, needs to be subordinated to the Office that she, and they, are charged to hold by not being utilized at all, period. It is my view that this can help to significantly reduce the egos that emerge and run rampant when celebrity-like status inflates an individual's or a group's persona above that of the people's Office held.
I know, about now you are looking for something better to do because you thing I have gone wing-nuts, but please, let's play these thoughts out together.
First off, by eliminating any individual or political personas from the Offices of our governments, we minimize the likelihood and ability of individual ego's being able to expand exponentially to put their own personalites, priorities and values ahead of the Public's best interests as a whole and the Mandate they were elected collectively to serve.
Secondly, it would also reduce the ability of the media to turn what should be the reporting of news into a perpetual ideological struggle rampant with speculation, and at times even fabrication, being passed off as 'news'. Simply put, it will help to make reporting of the work of the government(s) that serve us more about the actual actions and inititiatives of OUR governments, and much less about the nature and political persuasions of the characters in the suits and dresses standing at the podiums explaining them. If it serves to reduce the constant competitiveness and ideological conflicts between elections that is often times created and fueled by the media, that would be a positive outcome for the on-going dialogue about the influence and impact of governments in our daily lives.
Thirdly, it would also allow all of those elected officials to spend much less time worrying about their personal safety or about what they will read about themselves in the morning paper or find said about them in social media, and will allow them to focus instead within their relative anonymity and diminished stature with increased emphasis on their servitude to the duties they have been elected to fulfill.
There are a plethora of changes that need to be made within the systems and processes of governance in Canada to counter the current capacity of individuals and political parties, who represent only a portion of the Canadian populace, to hijack and/or distort the Mandate they have been given the sacred privilege of fulfilling on behalf of the People they serve. An increase in individual obscurity in favour of increased prominance for the Office and its ownership by the People would be a start in a positive countering of the propensity for some to forget that they are there to serve US and are entitled to no more or less than that.
