Not long ago, my niece, Kathleen, delivered a moving, heart-felt tribute to her dad, my brother Bill, at his funeral, and I sent a note of congratulations.
“Good compliments from my friends about your remarks,” I said to someone not accustomed to public speaking. “Maybe a career in politics?”
Her response was to the point. “I am not an idiot.”
When did this happen, this general disdain in our society for politicians?
When I was growing up eons ago, a suggestion you could go into politics would have seemed a massive compliment.
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Not any more. And public cynicism can only deter good and qualified people from running.
Cynicism certainly has crept into my journalistic tribe, a dim view about the people they cover on Parliament Hill. It underlines many of their stories.
Letters to the editor in newspapers reflect the same public cynicism — they are in it for themselves. Or as the Conservative attack dogs said in the last election about Liberal leader Michel Ignatieff — he didn’t come back for you.
Over the past four plus decades, I have covered thousands of provincial, federal and municipal politicians and got to know hundreds of them on at least a superficial basis.
I never have bought into the “they are in it for themselves” mantra. I’ve covered some sleazy politicians, some deadweights, some truly out-of-their-league politicians. I also have covered hundreds who were dedicated to the public good and who sacrificed much in their private lives to serve.
Last week when Alberta Conservative MP Ted Menzies quit after nine years, he said he had promised himself he would leave when it wasn’t fun anymore.
So the fun is gone? I asked.
“I have loved it, but the travel, eight hours from the office to home in Claresholm twice a week, just grinds you down.”
MPs from British Columbia, the north or hard-to-get-to rural or eastern ridings face the same grind.
Despite the occasional scandals or bad apples, the alternatives are worse: dictatorship or one-party government that gives citizens little or no say.
I have covered them for decades and continue to admire the fact that people leave good jobs and positions of community prestige or leadership to come to Parliament Hill, where they are seen as self-serving carpetbaggers, people who Pierre Trudeau once famously said are “nobodies” once they leave Parliament Hill.
Having said all that, these past weeks have not been easy for an admirer of those who plunge into the swamp of politics.
Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau (less so) clearly appear to have been in it for themselves, at least in part.
Toronto mayor Rob Ford appears to be in it for the drugs and parties.
It feeds into the cynicism that inculcates our political society, and it is sad.
For every self-serving bad apple, there are hundreds who serve trying to do good, even at the expense of their own careers and lives.
I keep reminding myself of the many who are not represented by the few.
I still admire the political class for the work they do and the sacrifices they make.
