Apolitical Staples

Ah, but Brash no longer leads the party, does he?

On the other side Greg, you have to ask yourself why his party did not suffer because he did what he did? Why are Kiwis comfortable with list MP’s? Could it be, they are not the force for evil they are being portrayed as by the no side? I suspect that if a leader tried what Brash did in the first several elections here, he/or she would be crucified. I also suspect that as people in Ontario get used to list MPP’s and see that they are just as able as other MPP’s, then (only maybe) could a leader do what Brash did.

In reality, nobody would care. The media might make a deal out of it but the leader would spin it as:

• I want to be the Premier of ALL Ontarian, not just some corner of the province

• Every voter should have the right to vote for their premier, not just the voters in some small section of the province

• I could have taken the easy way and run in any safe seat I wanted too like my opponent but …

Who cares how a party leader manages to lie, wheedle, cajole and beg his way into power?

There is no “good” or “bad” way of choosing leaders if no matter who you choose you’re gonna be fed the same baloney over and over again.

Think of the past, oh, six or so premiers of Ontario. Do you think a single one of them could walk down the street, without being protected by political flaks and bumboys, meet and greet the public at large, and receive any great respect or warm wishes? Every single one of ‘em left office under a cloud of acrimony. A really stinking cloud at that. Bill Davis with Catholic school funding and all-round, massive, spendthrift government bloat. The plaid-jacket guy for being insufficiently red. David Peterson, Patti Starr, hellooo? Rae Days. Mike Harris “cut all the funding to hospitals!” Ernie “Pale Pink Imitation of Dalton McGuinty” Eves. And the Gimper is obviously going to be no slouch in this regard.

If you look back on their careers and what their governments tried to accomplish it shouldn’t be any wonder that they piss off so many people. They take money from Jill, and they give it to Jane. They tell Jill that the ripoff is really an “investment in the future”, but all that happens is that Jill is pissed off that she had so much money taken from her, and Jane is pissed because she thinks she wasn’t given nearly enough.

What you have is a system build on lies and stealing, and not very intelligent lies and not very subtle theft. Don’t waste your time trying to come up with an intelligent, subtle way to run what is really just a shabby racket.