Politics

Politics (from Greek πολιτικος, [politikós]: « citizen », «civilian»), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions.

As the heading says, as well as that great gaudy logo to the right there , this blog will be to one degree or another, about politics. Canadian politics as the maple leaf suggests.

I am no politician, though I am a card carrying member of a federal political party. I am certainly no political pundit, student of politics nor any kind of recognized authority. But I do follow the Canadian scene and am interested in what goes on in good old Ottawa in the name of us Canadians everywhere. I guess you might say I’m an “arm chair quarter-back” when it comes to the Canadian Political scene. It’s real easy to criticize those in a given profession, especially when you don’t really have to walk a mile in their shoes (for the record, I have never been a real arm chair quarter-back. I could never place myself in those guys shoes and imagine what it would be like to be clobbered by a couple of 280 pound line backers…..ouch).

Over the years, I have gradually learned that politics is really far from what I always had imagined it to be, which was a group of hard working conscientious and dare I say, idealistic group of men and women who are elected by other hard working, conscientious and dare I say, idealistic voters to go to Ottawa and work collaboratively for the betterment of all Canadians. Perhaps to do a little good throughout the rest of the world also. Well I am embarrassed by the extent of my naiveté and that it took close to 50 years to find out any different.

So I’ve learned that politics really is a game. On some levels, a very childish game, and on others, a deadly serious game played out by people with an agenda, and often involving others who have no part in the electoral process what so ever. Somewhere in the middle, our country somehow manages to be run, whether you consider the running to be good, bad or indifferent.  But it functions somehow. I have also learned that there is no such thing as a collaborative approach to running the government. Well almost never. Two years ago when all the other parties joined together to overthrow  the ruling Conservative Government. In my eyes, that was democracy in action. The majority, the ACTUAL majority of sitting MPs wanted to get together to run the country “collaboratively” with an extremely honorable man to act as facilitator. It seemed like a dream. But we all know how that ended. Can you spell “Prorogation” ? Like most other Canadians, I had never heard of the word until it actually happened.

Well you can probably guess my political leanings already. But my intent with this blog is to be as unbiased and even handed as possible. If you look at the definition above, the word “Politics” comes from the Greek word “Politikos” meaning "citizen or civilian”, the process by which groups of people (presumably citizens) get together to make decisions. I am now of the opinion that this could not be farther from the truth.

Politics in Canada (and probably everywhere else in the world) seems to be quite distant from this definition. If you look at Parliament as the centre of the political universe in this country, it is not, for the most part made up of ordinary citizens or civilians. MPs, seem to come from a rather “select” strata or segment of the population: bankers, lawyers, professors, business men and mostly, business men. I doubt you would find a single “civilian” or ordinary citizen in the House of Parliament.  Most, especially the current sitting MPs would say, that it takes a select kind of expertise such as say, business men would have, to run our country. Most voters tend to buy into this notion of course, that elected officials need to have the same kind of experience as, oh say, a business man would have. So there are no ordinary citizens in Ottawa that I’m aware of. And it takes money and lots of it to run a campaign. And usually, whoever has the biggest war chest with the ability to discredit his opponents most, ends up the winner. So yes, most of our elected officials have way more access to large sums of cash than you or I would.

Anyway, folks, it is not my intention to slag the whole political system in one sitting. This will take time. But please do watch for my blogs as we go along, as the summer draws to a close and as the fall session looms. Can’t you just feel the tingle of anticipation?

Until Next time,

RKD