I was flipping channels last night and caught Andrew Coyne on TVO's news show The Agenda as part of a panel. He was lamenting the actual record of Stephen Harper as a conservative and listed a few items like the ignoring his own fixed election law and keeping an unelected Senator in the cabinet...not to mention that blurting out that Quebec is a nation. It got me thinking about lists. Look at this now instantly famous list from one Anne Kilkenny, the Alaskan voicing her familiarity with the arc of Sarah Palin's career:
- "Hockey mom": True for a few years
- "PTA mom": True years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
- "NRA supporter": Absolutely true
- Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, but vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional).
- Pro-creationism: Mixed. Supports it, but did nothing as governor to promote it.
- "Pro-life": Mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby but declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation.
- "Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
- Political maverick: Not at all.
- Gutsy: Absolutely!
- Open and transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
- Has a developed philosophy of public policy: No.
- "A Greenie": No. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
- Fiscal conservative: Not by my definition!
- Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
- Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
- Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.
- Pro-labor/pro-union: No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
For me, this is an effort to establish understanding rather than a purely snarky attack. And by "understanding" I mean one's own opinion of the acts of another - not some effort to interpret in the context of either ideological purity or some fuzzy concept like the truth that the two-dimensional (to be charitable with the number of dimensions) fools on most blogs would tout but never actually comprehend. Note also the use of the word "mixed". For me, it admits as much as about Palin as about the list maker. Each are imperfect and carries baggage.
So what would you list as the characteristics of the candidates in either the US or Canadian elections? Are you, like Coyne, one who can't make a list for our Conservative Party Prime Minister which is "conservative"...or even arising from his "party" rather than himself for that matter. And what of Dion the Grit or Jack the Dipper? What do they stand for when we compare words and actual deeds? What is on your list for them? For me, it is important to take on this exercise for a couple of reasons. First, there has never been such a time when promises and actions were as distantly placed. The Tories have governed as Liberals, the Liberals have been the Tory's best back benchers and the NDP have been inordinately silent through the whole thing. Second, this is an important election. If Harper is to get his majority - which he may now have earned however unlikely - it should not be though sleepwalking the electorate to the polls. If he does get it, expect a national reflection of Ontario's Mike Harris years: low tax, high spend retreat to deficit financing with an minoritarian ideological response for every practical problem. You may want that. You may not. You may be considering this in the context of the listeria scandal. Do you actually know what you want? Third, this election seems to be entirely about voting against someone - not some policy but someone. Is it? And shouldn't you know what you really think about them if that is the case?
What's on your list?
Comments
Temujin - September 6, 2008 12:07 pm
Third, this election seems to be entirely about voting against someone...
When you consistently vote for the lesser of two evils, in the end evil is all that's left.
Sorry if that's one-dimensional and cliche, but it's 8 am on Saturday morning.
Alan - September 6, 2008 12:28 pm
You're doing what you can. I feel your pain. Get coffee.
And it may be all that's left, but is it also all that's right, too?
Alan - September 6, 2008 11:02 pm
Seems like we need a list on the Greens, too.
If you put the word terrorist in quotation marks does the terror go away?
Jay Currie - September 7, 2008 4:57 am
To call Steve a conservative - at the moment - is a real stretch. Perhaps with a majority but I am not counting on it.
In the current case the real question is what faith one places in his chief rival?
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Is pro Kyoto - but did bugger all to make Kyoto happen while in office.
Wants to impose new taxes.
Pretends revenue neutrality but has already said that he'd spend the money on assorted Liberal social programs.
Can find a billion dollars for truckers and the like because of inherent fudge factors.
Doesn't want to even think that the science is less than settled.
Happy to tax people who will never vote for him in order to pay off people who will.
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I rather like M. Dion simply because he brought a bit of clarity to the entire Quebec debate; but at the moment he is running on the Harper=Bush=Evil ticket and the silly Green Shift idea and therefore has, from my point of view, taken himself and the Liberal Party out of serious contention.
Harper is a very dull man but he is not W and he is a very long way from Evil. The "scare" is simply not going to work this time out.
And the Green Shift is so dumb that even Liberal backbenchers can see the flaws.
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As to Mrs. Palin - the list does not matter. Just as Obama's total lack of experience/competence does not matter. Both are symbols. The essential difference being that half black Harvard grads are rather less common than lily white, lipsticked, hockey moms. The Dems want to play the politics of identity and so they really can't blame the Republicans for playing the same politics better.
The Devil is certainly in the details but, in an American Presidential election, the details are buried under the symbolism. Mrs. Palin is the counter symbol to Obama; but there are a lot more of her than there are of him. Ignore the lists, go to a rink and see all those gals in the minivans in to lace up their kid's skates. Did they go to Harvard Law? Do they live in a doubtfully financed mansion? Do their spouses have sinecures paying 300K a year?
Mrs. Palin is everymum, Mr. Obama is a six sigma outlier.
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Meanwhile, Steve takes his kids to play hockey...does Dion have any kids of his own?
Alan - September 7, 2008 9:18 am
That is such a bizzare idea, that being in public with one's children is a sign of leadership. We have gotten so far away from the idea that administration and policy is a skill that we are asked to pick someone "like us", someone you would want to have a beer with.
I want the list to ensure they do not act as symbols. To do otherwise is to give up on democracy. On that list, both Harper's and Dion's spending sprees have to be noted but so far I only see one suggesting how taxation will pay for it all. Being familiar with Torynomics, I understand why and I understand also where it gets us - deficits.
Alan - September 7, 2008 9:33 am
I think we also need the role of ideology / out sourcing in relation to government food inspection on the list.
Josh - September 7, 2008 1:46 pm
Meanwhile, Steve takes his kids to play hockey...does Dion have any kids of his own?
Yes, he has a daughter, Jeanne.
Paul of Kingston - September 7, 2008 3:39 pm
I love the way that in the US a mainstream conservative is equivalent to a dangerously deluded whackjob in Canada.
sean - September 8, 2008 2:31 pm
I have a list of things that politicos have given up to appear to be more along the lines of their target demographic.. and they all rhyme with "Whack"
Dion: Gave up Back Pack
Harper: Gave up Six Pack
Layton: Gave up hunting deer with six-point-plus rack
Gilles Duceppe: Gave up hanging out wit his biker friend Jacques (okay, I made that one up)