Jonathan Kay has an interesting column (subscriber only) in the National Post today regarding the state of leadership in Canada.
Parliament has been adjourned for a month now. You are forgiven for not noticing. Citizens become engaged in politics when they are drawn in by charismatic leaders with original ideas: Pierre Trudeau, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Mike Harris, Rene Levesque. But Canada is led by Paul Martin - an ideological nullity, robotically disposed toward whatever policy happens to be endorsed by a bare majority of survey respondents. Canada has effectively become a nation governed by algorithm.
This explains why so many Canadians continue to be captivated by U.S. politics - even as they profess to detest George W. Bush and the people surrounding him. It is not just that America is bigger, richer and more powerful than we are. It is that leaders there aren't afraid to go to the wall over big, bold, controversial ideas like social security privatization, abortion and democratizing the Arab world. (In Canada, by contrast, we can't even get a leader on either side of the aisle to break the ancient taboo on private health care - even now that the Supreme Court has given them the green light).
Although I do find Mr. Kay's thesis compelling, I also find it ironic coming from a member of the National Post's editorial board. The National Post is racing towards mediocrity and in recent weeks the paper as been so bland to be unreadable.
