Thursday, October 16, 2008

Why imagination is necessary for governance

It seems that disenchanted Canadian voters could not even bother to go to the polls on Tuesday. A mere 59.1 percent of voters cast their votes – the smallest number of electors to vote in any election in Canada, ever. (There is a letter from someone who did not go to the polls in today's Toronto Star. It explains that, in the absence of any clearly articulated platform for which to vote – as distinct from a host of reasons as to why an opponent did not deserve to be elected – the writer's abstaining was a deliberate, considered choice.) Of the people who went to the polls, only 37.63% voted for Stephen Harper's Conservative Party. Using the figures on the net, that means that just over five million out of almost twenty-three million voters elected the Conservatives – in other words, not even a quarter of eligible Canadian voters. Thus Mr Harper broke his own fixed-date-for-voting legislation and spent some $300 million dollars of taxpayers' money on an election that has left us, effectively (never mind the Conservative 'gains') exactly where we were in the first place, with a minority government with which, according to the Prime Minister, it is impossible to run the country. It ought to keep the Conservatives humble. We'll see. The good news is that many first time voters turned up at the polls! Good for you, first time voters! You will have a vested interest in the country for longer than any of the rest of us, so BIG UPS for turning up to have your say! As I contemplate the distressing fact that our system of (mis)representation makes it possible for a government to take office when so few of those who voted actually chose it, it occurs to me that a little Bible might not be amiss. According to Proverbs 29:18, "Without vision, the people perish." In this context, "vision" probably refers to the gift of prophecy, at least according to the notes in my copy of The Jerusalem Bible – for information (especially fsjl's), a text in large part translated from the original Hebrew and Greek. We'll come back some other time to the matter of just what prophecy is. Suffice it to say that it is part of Jewish, Islamic and Christian traditions. Let's for the moment agree that a country (read 'people' in the phrase from Proverbs) needs wise leadership ('vision'). Despite a lot of recent talk about leadership based on experience, the truth is, in this highly complex, swift-moving modern world, no politician can have all the experience necessary to deal with the social, political, economic, industrial, agricultural, environmental, fiscal, health, educational, immigration, security, defense, etc., etc., issues. And in the absence of experience, one faculty and only one will serve, and it's the faculty of imagination, the seat of understandings based on empathy, analogy, the ability to conjure the evidence of "things not seen," to quote some more scripture. It is for this reason that I shudder at our prospects under the Conservatives, a party who have by their actions demonstrated that they are against the arts, against the life of the imagination. In that respect I would have been glad to have Stéphane Dion as head of the ship of state, or Bloc Québécois leader, Gilles Duceppe, or Elizabeth May. (I am not so sure of Jack Layton in his new Car Salesman guise.) They strike me as people who can envision things. Perhaps they will see the virtue of imagining the rapid downfall of this new minority Conservative government and of engineering an election that will address the real issues – and they are many, and formidable.

10 comments:

Jdid said...

lol, all I can do is laugh. The Tories did their best to lose this election. The fact that they didnt seems more a testament of the alternative leadership offered. Dion was uninspiring, Jack seems for lack of a better word somehow shifty and well the Greens barely have a foot in the door. Harper won by default and still its only a minority. A strong Liberal party knocks his crew on their backsides in two years and another 300 million. Got to love it

clarabella said...

jdid:

You are a man of extraordinary courage for you clearly are laughing in the face of enormous adversity! As for Stéphane Dion, his problem is at least in some part the fault of the deux solitudes, as our GG puts it. In French he's a whole lot better than in English. Also, I'd trust him with my children, as I would Duceppe and Elizabeth May. (You and I agree that Jack looks shifty these days.) The scary part is that tough times are already here, and I really don't think this guy has the imagination. (Bite your tongue, Pam! Bite your tongue!) Bon courage to us all!

FSJL said...

I'd say that Harper made a bet -- that he'd seem like a safe pair of hands -- and lost the bet. The other part of the bet, of course, is that the election took place in complete ignorance of the outcome of the elections to be held on this side of the border on the 4tn of November. One wonders how the Canadian people would vote were the incoming American administration to be led by John McCain. One wonders if Mr Harper's blue sweater would protect him much were he to have held elections with a brand-new Obama administration?

clarabella said...

fsjl:

Some really unfortunate things this side of the border: an electoral system that vitiates the will of the voters, a Liberal leader that is hamstrung by his lack of fluency in English, and some bad packaging ('spin' again!) of his Carbon Tax plan. (Dionne Brand had a good take on this. I'll see if I can find the url for the blog.) I take your point about our election taking place in ignorance of which administration will be in place in Washington. No doubt that was part of Stephen Harper's plan!

FSJL said...

FPTP really does not represent the will of the Canadian voter, since Canadians clearly want more than two choices. STV would be far more representative (in my reasonably humble opinion), and would give voters real power.

Jdid said...

Clarabella if I dont laugh I would cry :-)

fsjl I dont think Canadians would have voted much differently if the American election outcome was known. For a lot of folk it came down to Dion just never captured our imagination. Regarding that Carbon tax the Liberals did a really bad job explaining that to us. Give us some Joe the plumber examples, and maybe it flies but the word tax just scares folks.

FSJL said...

Jdid, you may well be right. I don't know much about Canadian politics. I suspect that if the US moves further to the left or right it may have an influence on our neighbours to the north, that's all.

clarabella said...

Hi fsjl:

However the US moves, it will affect our moving up here further to the north. I think you are quite right on that... (And I fear there's much doubleness in that 'right'!) This morning's papers has Canada into deficit financing, the country having elected a leader for his steady hand, his ability to lead, the very one who a couple weeks ago was assuring us that we were fine to weather any storm, the very one who plundered the country's coffers to give BIG spenders a rebate on GST, for the rebate affected little spenders far less. Do the math. A 2% reduction in tax for people who spend $20,000 a year is $400.00. That same reduction in tax for people who spend two million dollars is forty thousand dollars. So just WHO was the cut in GST benefiting? The problem is that North Americans do so poorly in Math in school! So that fat cats would have more to spend, our great leader pushed us into an empty treasury, having inherited from the Liberals a nice little cushion of a surplus. God help us! ...as I keep saying.

clarabella said...

Hi jdid:

You know my response to your comments became my last post. Thanks much. P&L

FSJL said...

Pam: It sounds as if Harper is playing the same tune that's been played on this side of the border. At a time when it no longer pleases the audience!