Monday, February 27, 2012

The Depressing Backroom of Politics

This latest robo-call political scandal in Canada only reminds my how much I am completely out of sync with political party back room people.   I find negative campaigning unethical and I think that all attempts to suppress the vote is not only unethical, but fundamentally immoral.

The serious back room political insiders from across the political spectrum almost all operate from the motto "The ends justify the means".   The thinking is that is better to become government by whatever means possible than risk losing but maintaining an ethical dignity.    I disagree with this completely and utterly.   The means end up defining the ends - you can not expect a good government from a party that did not approach the election in ethical manner.  We have had fundamentally flawed governments federally as far back as I can remember.  I had hopes that Stephen Harper would carry enough of the Reform Party past to be something different.   Now he is a Prime Minister that is at best marginally better than Paul Martin, Jean Chretien and Brian Mulroney.

In any setting a corrupt practice that is allowed to happen changes the culture.  As the culture changes and is corroded by unethical or corrupt practices it reinforces the power and status of those that are corrupt.   It also ends up making everyone within the system corrupted.  The people that speak out against the unethical behaviour become labeled naive or polyannish - they are robbed of the status they should have.   The best people in politics are the ones that are sidelined and pushed out by their own party when you have the sort of corrupt political scene we have in Canada.

I can not go along with all the negative campaigning and voter suppression going on.   I have been a member of political parties more or less all the time since I was 18.   I need to re-assess that if the backrooms continue to act as they do.

In this current situation, I would have a lot of respect for the Conservative MPs if they chose to resign and run in a by-election to confirm that they are the choice of the people.  The latest robo-calls are only one of the tactics used in the last election though likely the worst.   

I have real trouble with which party I should support federally.   The federal Liberal party have had a century of the "Ends Justify the Means" as core to their party.   It lead to the less than stellar governments of almost every Liberal Prime Minister has been.   

The Conservatives are not  a party I can support in the next election because they have drifted much too far from the core values of a new approach politics that Preston Manning and the Reform Party espoused.  It would take resignations of MPs that might have won because of the robo-calls for me to support the party again.

Could I support the federal NDP?   Maybe but not with Mulcair or Topp as leader - which given they are the clear front runners means I am unlikely to support them.  A Nathan Cullen lead NDP I could vote for, assuming he remains true to his inner principles and is not sucked into the winning at all costs that normally overwhelms the official opposition.

The Greens are not an option because I am not a fan of Elizabeth May and I do not see a serious party trying to run and win in numerous ridings across the country.

I am left with few choices federally and I may have to sit out 2015.  I am impressed with my MP and I could vote for her even her party is not too negative.   Denise Savioe is a New Democrat.

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