Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Democracy is the loser

The nastiness on Parliament Hill reached such a height in mid-February that even a forced, partial climbdown looks like grace and class by contrast. But it'll take a lot more than sheepish apologies in the House of Commons to clean the dirt out of Canadian politics.

There are few members of Parliament more dignified and eloquent than Liberal Leader Bob Rae. Forced to deal with his knowledge that a Liberal staffer was behind the Vikileaks Twitter account that smeared Conservative Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, Rae stood up and honourably apologized. The staffer, he said, has resigned.

For his part, Conservative Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird apologized to the NDP for saying in the House on Feb. 17 that, "Today we have learned that the NDP official opposition has been caught in a nasty, dirty Internet trick. Not only has it stooped to the lowest of the lows, but it has been running this nasty Internet dirty trick campaign with taxpayer money." In his apology, Baird implied that his error was in relying on media reports, but there was nothing in any media report to remotely justify his allegation that the NDP had been "caught."

Although Rae did a much better job of his apology, it would be wrong to applaud him too loudly. All Liberals must ask themselves what kind of culture exists in their party if this kind of partisan hatred can fester, and surface in the form of an ugly, anonymous online attack. As Rae himself said recently of Stephen Harper in relation to the robocalls scandal, "This stuff doesn't happen unless the boss lets it happen."

Still, Rae seemed sincere in the respect he showed to Toews and his condemnation of personal attacks in politics. In owning up to the problem, he did the right thing. When there's a fire within a party, it's the leader's job to get out the hose. Harper should take note.

Indeed, the timing of this latest revelation about Vikileaks might help the Tories brush off concerns about electoral fraud, if citizens shake their heads in disgust and say, "they all use dirty tricks. What's the difference?" When parties try to win at all costs, the ultimate loser is Canadian democracy. If we get to the point in this country when allegations of electoral fraud are no big deal, that will be a sad day for every party, for every citizen.

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: --

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