There is likely no question I get asked more often than this one: whatever happened to decency in politics?
If nothing else, some four decades of close contact with a lot of politicians offers a fair bit of perspective on this matter.
My assessment? The current politicians are pretty good. Certainly, they’re no worse than what we’ve had in the past. One might even argue there’s been no time in recent political history when we have seen so many of our political leaders rise to the occasion.
Of course, many will take umbrage with this.
They will point to the shuttered economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and certainly bring up the WE scandal in Ottawa that was, unquestionably, a ridiculous blunder that should not be tolerated by taxpayers.
Or, depending on their political persuasion, they might point to the Saskatchewan Party government’s bungled school re-opening policy. This appears to be a case of not providing the leadership required, dumping the tough divisions on local school divisions with limited resources and little authority.
Clearly, mistakes are also a reality. And given that it’s our tax dollars that have to pay to fix these mistakes, we surely have the right to complain and criticize.
But it’s how some of us react to these mistakes made by politicians, or even things that politicians do that aren’t really mistakes, that speaks to the real problem of decency.
The first problem with some in the public is a complete and total loss of perspective.
There are always reasons to criticize politicians, but the outrage we are seeing from some is completely disproportional.
Heck, the WE scandal isn’t even the worst we have seen from the federal Liberals when compared with the sponsorship scandal that cost much more, and rightly ousted the Liberals from power for a decade.
In this province, we have seen a government caucus set up a secret scheme to convert communication expense allowances into cash that was handed over to MLAs, a scheme that resulted in 20 convictions of Progressive Conservative MLAs and staff.
But if social meeting posting or the unhinged rants from supposed professional media personalities were to be believed, you’d think we now have the most corrupt politicians ever.
To make matters worse, some people see biased social media or thinly veiled partisans in the mainstream media as their only source of information. This lack of objective news sources only irresponsibility feed the outrage against politicians with whom they don’t generally agree. It is here where lines are being crossed.
Indecency isn’t the reasonable and criticism of government policy. It is now and has been vile and potentially dangerous behaviour and, sadly, we may be seeing more of that.
Recently, Regina police charged a man with leaving threatening voicemails against Premier Scott Moe last week.
Whatever you thing of Moe as person (and, frankly, he seems a rather decent one) he clearly doesn’t deserve this.
But the sad reality is Moe is not the only politician to be victimized by this abuse.
A favourite target in federal politics is federal Infrastructure and Communities Minister Catherine McKenna who has been the frequent target of abuse.
Most recently, the Ottawa police hate crimes unit is investigating after a man screamed obscenities outside her constituency office. That the man felt the need to post his 90 seconds of vile outrage on social media says much.
And then there are the charges against Manitoban Corey Hurren, who rammed his truck through the gates of Rideau Hall while allegedly carrying four loaded firearms and uttering threats against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It’s indecency now in the realm of madness.
And far and away, the greatest problem right now seems to be some people rather than the politicians themselves.
