Western Producer staff
Voters rest, but a politician’s work is never done
This is open season on politicians. In the United States last week, voters threw out Democrats in a massive display of crankiness with incumbents. In Canada, the honeymoon with the Liberal government probably will end soon in a flurry of voter anger over declining services, budget cuts and political scandal.
As a blood sport, it is almost too easy and predictable. Conventional wisdom defines it simply: Politicians make too much, live too well, do too little and toil mainly to feather their own nests.
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Reader warning: Those readers who instinctively agree with most of the above would be well advised not to read this column. It will actually, and uncharacteristically, offer some praise and understanding for the 295 politicians we sent to Parliament Hill a year ago.
First, the case for the prosecution.
Who are these politicians that so many of us love to hate? They are men and women with enough ego to believe they know what’s good for us.
Of course, they say they reach conclusions only after consulting us, but after nine years of Brian Mulroney’s curious philosophy that unpopularity is a politician’s Badge of Courage, few voters believe that.
To long-suffering taxpayers, politicians seem to live pampered lives of travel, expense accounts, fancy meals and high-priced help.
Next week, the National Citizens’ Coalition will add to the cynicism with an advertising blitz pointing out that MPs elected in 1988 now qualify for the “gold-plated” MP pension.
With all that in mind, it was interesting recently to hear rookie Manitoba Liberal MP Marlene Cowling talk about what surprised her when she got to Ottawa.
The biggest surprise, she said, was how much more there is to political life as a government back-bencher than she expected.
On the surface, MPs meet constituents, attend party caucus meetings, House of Commons sittings and committees and handle media inquiries.
Out of sight, there is much, much more.
There is an overload of information. There is a constant stream of exhausting meetings and travel.
And there is the political game. The most gruelling Parliament Hill political battles are not government against opposition. The more time-consuming and difficult battles often take place within parties.
The political caucus, a model of discipline and like-minded thinking in public, is often a raucous place where compromises are forged in private, after hours or days of hard work.
Recently, for example, rural and urban Liberals spent long hours working out a proposed gun-control compromise. (They presented justice minister Allan Rock with a proposal to register all guns over five years.)
Other battles rage within the party on issues as diverse as Canadian Wheat Board powers and same-sex benefits.
Across the floor, Opposition MPs have their own time-consuming challenges.
The point is not that politicians are saints. It is simply that despite the bad image, most work very hard trying to do both good and well.
