Politicking should take back seat to governing

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/09/2024 (347 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There has always been a healthy dose of performance in politics.

But now, performance seems to have taken the place of reality.

Donald Trump is videoed waving and pointing to non-existent crowds as he leaves buildings and aircraft.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is essentially air-dropped into events with “ordinary Canadians” without letting the media know that he’ll be there until the very last minute, so photos of the events are fully controlled and media questions are kept to a minimum. (Fully controlled, that is, unless a random steel plant worker in Northern Ontario has harsh words for the prime minister, as happened a few weeks ago in Sault Ste. Marie. But no matter — a few hours later, there can always be an unprovable, unsupported social media rumour that the worker was a Conservative plant.)

Opposition politicians ask staged leading questions of Trudeau in the House of Commons — even on days when Trudeau isn’t there — without even worrying about an answer, all to get the best possible video clip for tonight’s social media hit, and then dart out of the House of Commons for the next tightly stage-managed event.

It’s discouraging.

Discouraging, because more than ever, we’re living in a staged political world.

It’s gotten so bad that when federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh seemingly lost his temper, turned around and called out a pro-convoy protester in Ottawa who called Singh a “corrupted bastard,” telling the man, “you’re a coward, you’re not going to say it to my face,” there were immediately questions about whether Singh was actually angry, or whether the well-shot occurrence was planned to show Singh as a tough leader.

It’s turning Parliament into pantomime.

It would be far better if we had less performance, and more governance.

You can argue that someone could have made a living for years manufacturing special silver shovels for municipal, provincial and federal politicians doing groundbreakings for businesses, new hospitals, or new schools.

You would be perfectly within your rights to suggest that kissing babies and waving to crowds from a car in a small-town parade have been political staples since, well, since there have been cars.

But never — never — have rigorously controlled events been the be-all, end-all of politics. Campaigning was, for decades, a means to an end — and that end was forming government. Elections were decided, and the campaigning stopped, at least until the next election was somewhere on the near horizon.

Now, campaigning is like the song 99 Bottles of Beer — it just never seems to end.

Here’s what would be a great approach, in the form of the three-buzzword slogan that seems to pass for cogent policy these days.

“Skip the lip.” “Cap the cr-p.” “Nix the tricks.”

Oh, and, though it isn’t a catchy little rhyme, “Do the job.”

We pay our politicians to spend their time formulating policy, debating what things will work best for Canadians, along with making, amending, and improving laws that put that policy into place.

We expect them to share their policy goals and fiscal plans with the electorate, explain their positions while the House of Commons is debating the things that will affect our everyday lives, and not just look for the next issue that can be bent or twisted to score the most points on social media, headlined, as always, with a breathless all-caps “BREAKING NEWS!”

In case we haven’t been clear: the job is not criss-crossing the country endlessly on our dime.

A politician’s prime duty to taxpayers and citizens is not simply campaigning for their own re-election or their own party’s future fortunes.