Time to Be Good

Another election coming on a wave of nasty. You may have seen the attack ad in which Mark Carney is caught with a momentary ambiguous expression that looks vaguely untrustworthy, and the entire scene is washed in bloody red hinting that this guy is dangerous.

Poor conservatives. They are confronted with an opponent whose career has been conscience in action, while they have nothing to show for years in opposition but insults, slogans and complaints. So they search video archives for fleeting instances in which Carney wasn't so pretty, and then drown out the public perception of who he is by repeating 'sneaky' over and over. Poor conservatives.

Liberals, what do you do when the opposition appears to be succeeding in its campaign of distrust, fear and anger. Well you respond with your own appeals to distrust, fear and anger mixed with a bit of evidence: Poillievre caught repeating the same words as Trump spoke on various themes making a convincing case that Pierre is miniMAGA.

Come on, you guys. If you want respect, show some respect. If winning is on your mind, have you considered the prize? The winner gets the blame for everything that happens going forward, and the loser wins the privilege of criticizing, yelling insults and obstructing parliament, and all of this goes on for five years or until the winner loses. What sort of idiot would want to play that game. Is this what we get to vote for?

Governing Canada is not a game. If governments were about principles and policies for the benefit of people, if governments worked out issues by rational consideration of pros and cons from diverse perspectives, if thoughtful candidates reasoned with the public, then Canadians would be the winners and there would be no losers. 

But that would be democracy, and we aren't there yet. We're not going to get there if we surrender our minds to Russian trolls on social media or robocalls from AI chatbots equipped with emotional intelligence and adaptive language. They are among us, and they are already smarter than we are. World War III will be fought by credulous ignorant pawns repeating plausible lies and conspiracy theories, no bombs, no guns, just ordinary people offering themselves up in service to the most convincing fantasy.

But we can dream. Maybe someday voters will get wise. Maybe then politicians will behave as if Mum is watching and try to be good instead of doing whatever it takes to win. 

Election coming. 

Time to be good...
for a change.