The politician
Watching Question Period, one might get the impression that Members of Parliament are the bitterest of enemies.
It is a real eye-opener to see those same people under different circumstances. The MPs playing softball against the media team forget their political differences in a common cause.
There is a perception abroad that politician and government are, to quote Mr. Shakespeare, “things of naught.” Actually, both have highly useful functions and putting them down only makes it difficult to get good people to participate.
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When you arrive in Ottawa as a freshman MP with knocking knees and the sudden realization that changing the world might not be as easy as you told your constituents it would be, you find those seemingly self-assured people across the House are just as lost as you are. Before long there is the tentative question:
“Did you have as tough a time getting out the vote as I did?”
Farmer members consult each other on seeding practices. When there is a tornado or a flood in a constituency, members of all stripes are curious about it.
There are instances where bitter exchanges result in an unfriendly chill. For the most part, though, MPs put aside their politics on social and state occasions and get along in a most cordial fashion.
In the newspaper business you meet these people away from the field of battle.
You find they have families, mortgages, flea beetles on their canola, tractors that break down at the worst possible time and kids who get the measles.
Am I suggesting that politicians and even cabinet ministers are human? You get the picture.
