Politics as Entertainment

More evidence that Canadians see politics largely as entertainment: Rob Ford's approval rating is higher now than before he admitted using cocaine, and higher than that of Barack Obama or the US Congress.

Rob Ford

Rob Ford in chains.

By law, as I understand it, an Ontario mayor can only be stripped of office if he is convicted of a serious crime or if he is found guilty of a conflict of interest.

Rob Ford should remain in office unless and until one of these two conditions are met. They are currently not met.

Yes, the provincial government could amend the law to get him out. But this would set a terrible precedent: retroactive laws are an automatic violation of human rights, and could be used to take out anyone some future government finds inconvenient.

Removing an elected officeholder by non-democratic means is also a terrible precedent. It could be used in future by a ruling elite to end democracy for all practical purposes.

Rob Ford's personal life is, in principle, none of our business. He has the same right to privacy as a common citizen. He also has the same right to freedom of speech.

Of course, he also has the right to resign if he so chooses. His call.

Reasons Canada is Not Ready for Self-Government: #1. John Diefenbaker

Just look deeply in those eyes, and tell me you believe he is sane.

We gave this guy the biggest majority in Canadian electoral history. Does anyone think he was a great prime minister? No; he was a disaster. Even at the time, did we really take his “Northern Vision” seriously? Yet so long as we were given the chance, even after we had seen what he was like in power, we never voted for anyone else in sufficient numbers to clearly defeat him. Let him out on the hustings, and he could always close any gap in the polls.

Why?

Because we loved him. We still love him. I still love him. Just as we love Don Cherry, and for all the same reasons. We voted for him because we found his so entertaining. He was fun to watch.

Giving Pearson the finger.

This seems to be a common thing in Canada. We are a nation of comedians, and we see politics primarily as a source of entertainment. It is not Just Diefenbaker. It is a lot of prominent politicians, all the way back to Sir John A. Macdonald, our founding figure. We loved him largely because he was a drunk, and we didn’t know what he might do next to embarrass himself in public. We actually built a country on it.

So, when the video of Rob Ford smoking a crack pipe recently turned up online, his poll ratings-- jumped. We love to watch Rob Ford. Just as we loved Amor de Cosmos, BC’s Father of Confederation, ultimately judged insane; Ralph Klein; Joey Smallwood; John Crosbie; Brian Tobin; Mitch Hepburn; Bill VanderZalm; Real Caouette; Charlotte Whitten; Bryce Mackasey; … there is a pattern emerging here.

This is not how a grown-up nation chooses its leaders. A grown up nation does not elect the funniest guy to be its leader. Especially when he does not know he is being funny.