Unlike food prices, the election writ is bound to drop any day now. By Sept. 15 we’ll be awash in our national season of scandal, sludge-slinging and the occasional substantive debate.
We won’t tell you who we think is qualified, but we do want to emphasize what should be disqualified, because there’s an infectious populist pitch that would be laughable if it weren’t gaining purchase around the world.
Before he appealed to the Queen for job help, Boris Johnson was a “journalist” who churned out ridiculous, uproarious columns intimating the European Union was on the brink of standardizing coffins and condoms. His tactless, fact-less bluster urging England to stand alone seemed harmless until the United Kingdom was slow-walked to the precipice of economic disaster.
Closer to home, Premier Jason Kenney won an election while implying Alberta was a province without a country. Little attention was paid to the fact that Alberta’s struggles have more to do with a devotion to maintaining the lowest tax rate in Canada than any betrayal by Ottawa.
Of course, politicians will say and do things no sensible person will do. They will appear to enjoy the Grouse Grind. They will drink milk from the carton in public despite not having won the Indy 500. But we urge Canadians to be skeptical of any rhetoric that makes you feel angry, entitled, nostalgic or cheated.
Canada has no golden age to return to, no international cabal to rebel against, and no wall to build.
As excruciating as it can be, election season is brief. Its impact, however, can last a lifetime.
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