Old Insights That Still Work
In 1958 on the way to the largest Progressive Conservative majority government Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s train stopped outside a small Alberta town. He was driven to the local high school and was standing back stage with the local PC organizers. They stood at the bottom of the stairs leading into the stage left fly loft talking. I was stranded, unnoticed at the top of the stairs so I simply sat down and listened. The Prime Minister said a number of things that caused me to think about thinking.
What I remember him saying went something like this:
Remember, nobody in this riding can vote for me, or any other federal party leader! The leaders are not on the ballot here. Now, our job, yours and mine is to show the voters here that our candidate is the best qualified and most worthy to represent them in Ottawa for the next four years.
His second statement came with a visual aide. He said, This will be the last time that someone like me (he then shook his head, and after looking at each of them, put his hand to his chin to stop his jowls from waggling) will be able to be elected as a party leader and potential Prime Minister in Canada. The electronic pollution from the south means we are forgetting how our democratic system works.
Even when we are not in the midst of an election, the “electronic pollution” from the south is filling the airwaves and digital media pushing out most of the ideas and issues that might be relevant to Canadians.
One issue that is crucial is that in our system we cannot and do not vote for a Prime Minister or a Premier. We only have the power to cast a vote for one of the local candidates running to serve as a Member of Parliament or the Legislative Assembly in our electoral district. Yet, the political parties and the press focus the majority of their energy of promoting the party leader or attempting to discredit or undermine the leaders of other parties.
Is it just my imagination or has everyone forgotten how the Canadian parliamentary system works! Maybe this is something we should all think about.
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