Election #3 The Problem With Being Perfect

Just a few days ago, I did a blog on the difficulties of deciding how relevant should the activities be of politicians when they were younger. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have been active in looking at their opponent's social media pages searching for any previous sins. In hindsight Liberals should have been less enthusiastic looking for other people's sins, but perhaps they did not know about the skeletons that were hiding in Mr. Trudeau's closet.

I went to a small school just off the island of Montreal. The elementary and high school were attached and I don't think there were more than 300-400 students in the whole school. Sometime in the early 60s, when I was in elementary school, the high school students did a "minstrel show". I am sure I saw the show at least one year although it may have been for two years. The show was a big deal. The high school students all wore blackface and dressed up in costume, they sang songs and told jokes in fake southern American accents - acting like they and the audience assumed black people acted and talked. I can remember enjoying the show. I suspect that I was envious of the students who seemed to be having such a good time on stage and who clearly were appreciated by the audience.

It was a small school, in a community that always felt as if it was far off of the beaten track. In the early 1960s, there was no suggestion of what was about to happen in terms of civil rights to the south of us. I don't think the issue of racism was ever mentioned in any classroom I sat in. There were no people of colour in my school. The teachers, the students and the parents were all absolutely oblivious to the wrongness of these minstrel shows. Thankfully, well before I got to high school these show disappeared from the gym stage. It was wrong and it should never have happened but it was, at least on my part, unintentional racism. I had no way of knowing any better.

But certainly by 1970 - it was clear that people needed to start to think about these issues and by the 90s it is difficult for me to believe that anyone in Canada would have dressed up in blackface for a party - and think that it was okay. Someone can apologize all they want for doing so - I would accept that apology if there was some indication that it happened a long time ago and that they have taken steps to be educated on why it was wrong. The fact that Justin Trudeau wore blackface at least two times when he was an adult causes me to question his capacity to make intelligent decisions. I am reasonably sure that he is not a racist - but he has shown incredibly poor judgement. It is more disturbing that he did it as a teacher. He should have been a better model for his students.

There is no doubt that this news has been released at this specific time because it will hurt the Liberal's chances of winning the election. It was a crass political act that will ensure that the election will be about personalities, not policy. We deserve better.

The pictures/videos will confirm to some people that Trudeau is an ass and should not be the leader of a country. Those who will always support the Liberals will blame others for the news being released and say what he did 20 years ago is not important. It is far too early to guess whether or not the news will significantly sway people who had not yet made of their minds.

Within the war room(s) of the Liberal party, I am sure some have considered Trudeau resigning as perhaps he should. But that cannot happen. It would hand the running of the country to some other party - whether or not they deserved it. Perhaps the best that the Liberals can do is to suggest that the voters will decide whether or not the errors of two decades ago are relevant.

Scheer of the Conservatives has said that he would let anyone run for his party, no matter what they had said as long as they apologized. I bet that he will not be so generous to his main opposition.

Trudeau's failing is not that he did something stupid when he was younger - it is that he acted like he was near perfect in terms of his values and beliefs. He isn't and so some Canadians will be feel betrayed to find that their newest emperor is no better than their old one.

Election #3 Maxime Bernier and the Leadership Debate

Canadians like to think that they are a fair-minded people. In fact, much of our public persona around the world is based on the assumption that we treat people fairly, that everyone has an equal chance to succeed, that we do not discriminate against anyone. And in general, much of that is true. Or at least we try to make it true in a general way. There are, of course, thousands of examples where we have failed miserably to even come close to those ideals. On the other hand, there are times when our desire to appear to be fair causes us to make absurd decisions that while they may be fair for one individual are irresponsible and sometimes dangerous for the rest of us.

The Leaders' Debates Commissioner has decided that Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People's Party has the right to participate in the leadership debates scheduled the first weeks in October. It is not that long ago that the Green Party were not allowed to participate in such debates in spite of the fact that they had earned votes in every part of the country because they did not have a seat in the House of Commons. Bernier and his party which was just created a few years ago and therefore has never garnered any votes at either the federal or provincial level now gets to spew his near racist, isolationist, right-wing conservative hate messages on national television. He gets to act like he has something useful to say - most of which will be toxic to any reasonable debate. As noted by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh “It is wrong that Mr. Bernier be given a platform to promote an ideology of hate that spreads prejudice and disinformation.” (Global News). The fact that he has people running for his party that clearly identify themselves with the far right/neo-Nazi movement should be grounds alone for him being blocked from participating in the debate.

It is more than slightly depressing that a political party that suggests that we need to reduce the number of immigrants allowed into the country and whose economic principles are based on the theory that we can all be successful if we only tried a little bit harder can be created and given substance in 2019. We really should be better than that. It is infuriating that in our desire to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to participate in our democratic election, we are forced to accept the irrelevant and harmful garbage that comes out of his mouth.

The singular advantage of him being on stage with the other party leaders is that we will get to see who speaks out the loudest against his proposed policies. If I were the Conservative Party strategist, I might be worried about Bernier snagging some votes from the far right of that party.In the meantime- perhaps we should stop being so fair.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5913569/singh-debate-commissioner-letter-bernier/

Election #2

In the last handful of elections, various political parties have devoted considerable energies to perusing the social media websites of candidates from other parties in the hopes of finding either some racist, sexist or homophobic comments made in the past or some incident that suggest that the candidate has racist, sexist or homophobic leanings. Frequently when such comments or activities are found and circulated to the press, the candidate either voluntarily or at the request of their party withdraws from the contest. Not only can such disclosures be embarrassing for the party but I suspect that it can be expensive to replace the signs and campaign literature. Frequently it seems to me that such disclosure does not serve the public good.

What an individual said or did 30 years when they were young may not reflect on what they feel or believe today. Young people are vulnerable to peer pressure. There is an almost overwhelming need to belong. It is not surprising therefore that sometimes, some people say or do things that in hindsight were profoundly wrong. Sometimes things are said or done that are culturally normative or because of the lack of exposure to different opinions or attitudes. Sometimes people are jerks. They say or do hurtful things because they just do not think or perhaps even recognize the impact of those things. But those things, no matter how terrible they may have been, may not define who the person is today. The issue should be - what have they done since? Is there any indication that they have continued with those attitudes or have they changed? Does the individual have a track record of being engaged in their community, working with everyone and anyone, or are their social media posts and private comments still littered with racist, sexist or homophobic comments? Does the person associate with people who demonstrate tolerance and acceptance or do they socialize with others who have a long history of discriminatory remarks? Have they demonstrate the capacity for personal growth or are they still mired in the intolerance of their youth?

As much as it pains me to say so, I think that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is generally quite right when he suggests that if a candidate apologies for their comments, that they should not be asked to drop out. On the surface, it is a great policy. Except.....

The Conservatives have a candidate who has in the recent past made racist, and homophobic comments. She has worked hard to share her views on a number of platforms. She has spent time with individuals who are well known to have racist or homophobic views. It is not enough to apologize by saying " I am sorry, I did not mean to offend anyone". That type of statement comes from a place of privilege, it comes from someone who will not or cannot acknowledge that their particular world view is wrong and that just stating their views is harmful to people. The fact that she continues to make such statements suggest quite clearly that she has not changed her views, that there has been no personal growth, no acceptance of the harm she may have caused. She should not be allowed to run under the banner of any party.

The fact that Sheer supports her candidacy suggests that he too might be okay with others who are racist, sexist or homophobic. And that is scary.