Here we go again

Well, a federal election is once again upon us.  At one time, a federal election was a big deal - the equivelant of the olympics for the political set.  I can distinctly remember the elections from my very earliest memory up to my first election because there was only one Prime Minister.  Yup - Pierre Elliot Trudeau was the guy for the time - a rare being - in possession of so many nuanced skills essential to form a government through all that time.   Over the subsequent years we have had our share of leaders, some better than others, some under aprreciated - perhaps misunderstood.

A poll released yesterday by Leger shows that 24 % of Canadians have no opinion about who would make the best PM of this country.  Stephen Harper was a bit more than ten points above that mark, well ahead of the others - but looking past that ghost with 1/4 support would be a mistake for any party - most of all his.

People want sizzle.  They want charisma. They want brutal honesty, but not so brutal that it might cause any ill feelings whatsoever.  They want intelligence - but not at the expense of height.  God, a short PM would suck. 

Basically, people want the impossible, or are at least too unrealistic.  We are also - for the most part unintrested, misinformed or dishonest about our political system.  It is bad enough that 40% of us don't even vote - but those who do have very different criteria from each other as to what is important and why - or lacking that - where to put the pencil mark. 

As time goes on, more and more of the population will opt out of the political process.  A percentage of the large youth demographic and  new Canadians will continue to feel disconnected and unrepresented in the whole thing. Without change,  folks will drop out of the political process - and dropping out has never led to success in politics - or life.

It remains to be seen if there will be a change in the way we do political business in this country, and make people want to learn and participate in the political process. I hope we do - because if we keep going the way we are - we won't have the chance to choose much of anything.