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.
