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Written by Al Hollingsworth
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Saturday, 13 September 2008 |
Canada’s 16th prime minister gets better with age. Joe Clark, who during his short tenure as prime minister bore the brunt of some pretty cruel jokes, is today one of our most respected citizens. Aspiring politicians should look no further if they are seeking a role model.
On Wednesday, September 10th, at the height of the furor stemming from the exclusion of Elizabeth May from the Leaders’ debate, Clark penned an op-ed piece for the Globe and Mail entitled, “Let Elizabeth May speak.”
It should be required reading for every political candidate. Especially the nasty mean-spirited types who keep dragging down the standards of our democratic institutions.
I have no way of knowing this, but I am guessing that Clark’s dissertation may have played a part in swaying Stephen Harper and Jack Layton to change their minds and give the Green Party leader a seat on the stage.
While the thrust of the article was support for May, it also addressed the tone of federal politics in 2008. Clark wrote: “Elections can confirm bad practices, or change them. Ours need changing.” Amen, brother Clark, amen!
The former prime minister believes the tone of federal politics today is the worst he can remember in 50 years of public life.
It used to be a lot of good old fashioned give and take, heated debates that could be compelling but always civil. Today, as he pointed out, the standard has become consistently bitter and negative. “Personal invective routinely displaces any serious discussion of issues or differences,” he suggested.
He is so right.
Here in Nova Scotia, we are spending nine million precious tax dollars on something called Democracy 250. Can you imagine how many homes could be heated this winter with $9,000,000? I digress.
One of the purposes of this exercise is to create more of an understanding and interest in provincial politics. It wouldn’t cost a dime to raise the standards and stop the corrosion of the respect for our democratic institutions.
Over the past twenty years, there has been a steady decline in the reputation of politicians and their political parties. “Candidates are hard to attract. Citizens turn away from politics – especially young people, who see nothing to attract or inspire them,” Clark observed.
This was authored before Ryan Sparrow, an unthinking Conservative staffer, crassly suggested in an email to CTV that Jim Davis, the father who lost his son, Cpl Paul Davis, in Afghanistan, criticized Stephen Harper’s stance on bringing the troops home in 2011 because he is a Liberal.
Does it get any lower than that!
This guy is aptly named, for he and the cronies that dwell in Harper’s war room are for the birds.
(Al Hollingsworth is a former journalist and broadcaster and a newly minted admirer of Joe Clark)
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