As one who has had a long interest in current events, I find the present behavior of our politicians to be extremely disappointing. First, I would like to point out that I am Canadian and the conditions I'm commenting on refer to Canadian politics.
The level of debate in our parliament seems to have dropped right off the edge of the earth. Speeches that are logical and well researched are completely lacking. Policies that are well developed and reasoned are not in existence. Instead we get brief talking points which are responses given whether they are on the topic or not. These inane responses are repeated many times. So debate with someone else does not happen. Talking points limit the actions of the individual member of parliament to use his/her own ability to express their ideas and support their party's platform. Members do not get an opportunity to be leaders.
The present government has to take most of the responsibility for such low level of performance. The govt. is very loathe to give out any information. The public, press, opposition and any researchers are blocked many times from accessing public information. The govt. is fearful of releasing information for which they may receive negative publicity or criticism.
Rules of procedure are treated as something which is made to be broken. For the last election robo calls were used to pass out false information to discourage voters from voting. One party compiled a list of opposition supporters and used the robo calls to tell these people misinformation so they would not vote. Some candidates overspent the limits of campaign spending set by law. In some cases the winning margin was small and spending extra money probably bought the election for them.
Why have our politicians become such lunatics? Parties want to win so badly that they employ tactics which are most despicable. Attack ads are crafted and used. Many of these ads are very remote from the truth. Tactics to divide citizens are used so that less votes are needed to form a majority. With these tactics solid policy and debate go out the window.
I for one, would very much like to see political parties concentrate on developing sound policies that they stand for and promote. Then the voters can evaluate policies and elect who they think will do the most good. Why don't politicians think of the good of their country and be principled about it?
Most of all I would like to see some sanity return to our politicians! We are part of the process and have to come up with some strategies that require politicians to perform in a manner which follows rules and results in the success of the country.
