I am talking about two other nations; one I call “Political Junkie Land,” the other “Regular Canadian Land.”
And even though these two nations co-exist in the same country they actually have very little in common.
Political Junkie Land, for instance, is populated with party partisans, political hacks, journalists, talk-show hosts, and politicians.
It’s a land where politics is the national sport. In fact, Political Junkie Landers love to discuss and debate policy and political process; they are fascinated with the “politics of politics”; for fun, they read political opinion polls and watch public affairs programs. And they love to passionately debate each other over the minutest of political issues.
Regular Canadian Land, on the other hand, is a nation that’s composed of average non-ideological, non-partisan Canadians. And they care about stuff that impacts their daily lives.
They worry about paying for their kids’ education; they are concerned about the price of gasoline and their mortgage. And they are not concerned with the inner workings of public policy and politics. They care more about NHL standings than they do about standings of political opinion polls.
Oh and by the way, Regular Canadian Land accounts for approximately 95 per cent of Canada’s population.
Yet Political Junkie Landers erroneously believe that what matters to them must also matter to the residents of Regular Canadian Land.
Case in point is the current debate raging over the “Vikileaks” and “Robocall” scandals.
As is to be expected these scandals are extremely hot topics in Political Junkie Land. You can’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without seeing a dramatic story detailing new developments regarding political dirty tricks.
Was the fake Twitter account smearing federal Cabinet minister Vic Toews a nasty trick or brilliant political theatre? Did the Conservative Party use crank calls to unfairly win the last federal election?
And, naturally, the Political Junkie Landers assume other Canadians must share their passion. When speaking of the Robocall scandal, for instance, NDP MP Pat Martin declared “This is the kind of thing that brings governments down.”
But do Regular Canadian Landers care about this stuff?
Probably not. In fact, if anything all this sensationalized news coverage over the scandals just reminds them of why they tune out politics in the first place. They see it as a nasty business and they regard politicians, in general, as a shady lot.
And this is why the Liberals and NDP had better think again if they are planning to make the Robocall scandal the centerpiece of their anti-Conservative strategy.
It just won’t work.
As prominent Canadian pollster Nik Nanos put it in last week’s issue of The Hill Times, “I would expect that most people believe that all the parties engage in a lot of these unsavoury activities in one way or another. A lot of this has to do with the level of cynicism that exists out there. … It doesn’t move the numbers as much.”
Indeed, I would go further and suggest that if voters are asked to choose between a politician who is a competent crook and one who is an honest fool, they will pick the crook almost every time because, heck, at least the guy is smart.
In other words, if the next federal election features the Tories talking about the economy and the opposition talking about robocalls, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will almost certainly win another majority.
And this will trigger more heated political debate in the nation of Political Junkie Land, a debate which the Regular Canadian Landers will, needless to say, completely ignore.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Gerry Nicholls
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