| Commentary |
| Observations: |
| Nearly two-thirds of respondents in British Columbia are of the opinion that politics in British Columbia/Canada is either “Uninteresting” or “Very Uninteresting”. |
| A noteworthy majority of respondents are of the opinion that political personalities “at every level of government” are “Uninteresting” or “Very Uninteresting”. A similar number of respondents have a LOW “level of interest in watching political news and analysis.” |
| Commentary: Laurence "The Brain" Cameron |
| I love sports. Hard hitting, take no prisoners, full contact stuff. Lacrosse, hockey, football. politics. Huh? Yes, politics. But is it just me or has the latter become a dreadful bore? |
| These days Canadian politics reminds me of a major pro sports league that expanded too much for the talent pool to keep up. The overall
product suffers to the point of mediocrity becoming acceptable. Chants of "we're number 1!" might as well now be "we're in a league!"
Its sooo boring now. Its getting harder and harder to care. They're losing me. And fast. |
| Long gone are the halcyon days of Pierre "Terrible" Trudeau, Dave "the Hammer" Barrett, "Handsome" Bill Vander Zalm, Glen "Crusher" Clarke. Or the Women's Division- |
| Grace "Matahari" McCarthy, "Tequila" Sheila Copps or Kim "the California Kid" Campbell. Ah, dems wuz the days. |
| These stars have been replaced by B players like Stephen "But What Do The Polls Say?" Harper, Stephane "We Play Good, They Play Gooder" Dion and that, ah, Toronto guy that leads the NDP. You know the one I mean. The guy with the cheesy moustache. |
| Here is BC we have Gordon (nickname not disclosed) Campbell and, well, some other people. It's pretty bad here in B.C. when a guy like Sam "Wheels" Sullivan is the most interesting public figure only because he is disabled. I mean, God Bless him for being out there and overcoming such a physical challenge. But can someone tell me something about the guy other than the fact he is confined to a wheelchair? Like is he doing a good job, for instance? Anyone? |
| Ah, didn't think so. |
| On the Municipal level, I wouldn't know our Mayor (here in Coquitlam) if she cut in front of me in the grocery store line-up. |
| But is this my fault? Have I stopped paying attention to the point that I'm missing key info? Or is there just no key info to miss? |
| What about the media's role in all this? Ever since ownership controls were lifted we have a precious few, chosen people spoon-feeding us whatever they want us to know. Stories from
different sources- radio, newspaper, Internet, are all too often exactly the same. Word for word. They choose what info to give us.
And they also choose what info to not give us. Savvy folks, like ROBBINS readers, come to sites like this to get the inside story
because mainstream news just isn't good enough for us. Meanwhile each generation of the Great Unwashed gets a little dumber than the
previous lot and now we have the likes of Paris Spears, Lindsay Hilton and Rosie O'Trump leading off more and more "newscasts". The
decline of Western Civilization is in full swing, baby. And less and less people are worried about it. |
| American Idol winners get more press than the daily carnage taking place in the Middle East, Africa and far too many other places.
Closer to home a North American jewel like New Orleans STILL sits rotting, the bulk of it's population displaced and those that had
nowhere to go are frozen by fear of violent crime and drugs and numbed by empty promises. Meanwhile someone like Al Gore jets around
the world with rocks stars and throw gigantic parties for themselves, with boring musical acts playing in the background, for people that don't see (or care about) the hypocrisy of the whole thing. |
| But I digress. |
| So how do we raise the level of talent in our potential political players pool? Everyone freaks out when elected officials vote
themselves another raise. But shouldn't we do what we can to attract the brightest and the best? What incentive does someone like a David
"Flip" Emerson have to leave a powerful position in the private sector to take a major cut in pay and have to go roll around in the
mud with the hogs? Who needs that? |
| We need educated, experienced, strong people to lead us. Business types that eat knuckleheads like me for breakfast on one side and good people with big hearts, like a Mike "High Flier" Harcourt on the other, to balance things out and keep the skullduggery and bloodshed to a minimum. |
| So where do we find these people? If they aren't willing to come to us (and I don't blame them) then maybe we have to "create" them ourselves. The traditional sources, the Farm System, if you will, aren't grooming a next generation of new stars. Instead we get to choose from a list of names that a very few people have actually heard of, let alone know what they stand for. Why are we content with
letting a bunch of rookies loose to run The Machine? Are we really comfortable with that? |
| Me neither. So what do we do then? |
| Star athletes that make it to their respective Big Leagues have all been trained, coached and prepared for how to best utilize their
talents. What percentage of those at the top of their respective sports never went to hockey school, lacrosse camp or played in a
summer league in the off season? I say, well, ZERO? |
| So then why do we elect people to jobs they have no training in? Why are we satisfied to elect a slate of folks who are trying to get the best job they'll ever have? |
| I'm sure Sidney Crosby went to many hockey schools. It's worked out pretty well for him, so far. What training did Gordon Campbell, for
example, receive to qualify him to be Premier of British Columbia? |
| Maybe Political Leadership School is an idea that's time has come. Unless, that is, we're satisfied with those we elect to Govern us. I,
for one, am not. And I suspect you, the savvy ROBBINS reader, aren't either. |
