They and We are All the Same.”

Calgary Herald editorial

May 16, 2005

John von Heyking, University of Lethbridge

Commentators have recently used the image of a “perfect storm” to describe the current situation in Canada. They argue the death of the Liberals in Quebec might kill the federalist cause, leaving the separatists unchallenged, which would break up Canada. The death of federalism in Quebec is debatable in the wake of Adscam. Even so, the current situation illuminates the convergence of two crises that plague the nation: voter apathy and the crisis of responsible government.

A May 7^th poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid found that 58% of Canadians think that the Conservatives are motivated, not by a sincere desire to clean up government, but by a “power lust.” The poll echoes a commonly held view, repeated around water-coolers across the country, that all the parties “are the same.” They all have a “power lust” and cannot be trusted.

It follows that having an election is pointless because the same story will simply get played out, except by a different set of creeps. The rational thing for citizens to do then is to be like the Vancouverites interviewed on television the other night and, like the lotus-eaters whose self-absorption disgusts Homer’s Odysseus, tune out, go to the beach, and enjoy the summer.

NDP MP Bill Blaikie stood up in the House of Commons recently and warned that “there’s a very real danger that [the sponsorship scandal] increases cynicism” about national politics. Different politicians have also warned against voter apathy and have pointed to different causes for it (usually their opponents).

And so voter apathy is a problem, especially when it encourages politicians to get smug about their ability to retain power. If the voters won’t punish them, who will?

While the problem in Ottawa is great, Albertans shouldn’t get too complacent. Our legislature is more dysfunctional than nearly any other in the country. Backbenchers and opposition MLAs complain that the Public Accounts Committee, which is supposed to provide a check on the Cabinet, is the weakest in the country. Weaker even than its federal counterpart, which investigated Adscam before Martin dissolved the investigation and called last June’s federal election. Last week, the federal Conservatives introduced an awkwardly worded confidence motion in that committee that the Liberals subsequently ignored when the House of Commons voted on it.

The attitude that “they’re all the same” threatens our system of responsible government. Moreover, it is also based on a false assumption. Liberal democracy presupposes that parties do in fact lust after power and that, if left unchecked, will all end up producing their own versions of Adscam, or worse. Liberal democracy assumes individuals are fallible, self-interested, and even sinful. It does not assume we are angels. As James Madison, the author of the U.S. Bill of Rights once put it, “if men were angels, government would not be necessary.” Responsible government is a device we inherited from Great Britain to keep our non-angelic politicians in check, and also ourselves. It depends on an effective Opposition and Parliament with politically engaged citizens keeping the politicians’ toes held to the fire.

The attitude that “they’re all the same” is largely correct, but misplaced. The parties are the same not because they’re all corrupt. After all, not all federal parties are under investigation. Rather, “they’re all the same” because they’re all corruptible, just as any one of us has the potential to commit wicked deeds.

Moreover, voters’ cynicism is actually based on a false idealism. They believe parties must put the common good above their partisan preferences. But as these same polls show, politicians can buy off the “common good” and the voters simply by throwing $20 billion around for various pet projects.

Unfortunately, Canadians have convinced themselves that government must not only represent their views, but must cater to their every desire. The same voters who think “they’re all the same” also strongly support their premiers waddling up to the trough of the federal government. Pollara reported 60% of Ontarians supported Premier Dalton McGuinty’s call for more cash from Ottawa.

We’ve become idealistic (and cynical) in thinking of politics as satisfying our desires, instead of attending to our arrangements. In the age of instant news analysis, instant punditry, and instant polling, we’ve forgotten the difference between our democratic wishes and the institutions and laws that regulate how we conduct those wishes.

Some analysts consider the 1993 Charlottetown Accord as the low point of this phenomenon. There various aboriginals, feminists, regionalists, and ethnic- and religious-minorities jostled to have their “voices” recognized in the Constitution, on par with Quebec distinct society. They wanted to have their policy preferences entrenched in the constitution instead of through statute law. But in so doing they were simply being “good” Canadians. They simply expressed the populist mindset that government must cater to our every desire. This spring marks another low-point of this phenomenon.

The cynicism of Canadians that “they’re all the same” compares with the feelings of a lover who, wounded once, considers all members of the opposite sex “all the same.” The lover is angry, but still desires the warm touch of the offending partner. The sentiment reveals more about the one holding it than the politicians it’s meant to criticize. Similarly, Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam has documented how distrust of one’s political representatives eventually seeps into distrust for fellow citizens: “the civically disengaged believe themselves to be surrounded by miscreants and feel less constrained to be honest themselves.”

Adscam and the general crisis in responsible government in this country aren’t simply about corrupt politicians.

Adscam is about us.