“War has rules, mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules.” Those words were uttered by Ross Perot, a United States presidential candidate, in 1988. It seems little has changed in that regard.
Strident partisanship infects politics, and it’s spreading. There is no vaccine against the erosion of trust in public officials. The pandemic has even caused some to lose faith in doctors.
Canadians take comfort in the fact that we are not the United States. More prone to civility than civil unrest, even our protests seem tame by comparison.
But a recent revelation about back-room maneuvers by Alberta political operatives shows our dark side.
A Canadian Press story outlined alleged agreements between former Alberta justice minister Jonathan Denis and self-described political fixer David Wallace. Wallace calls himself a “repairman” who can fix difficult situations – for a price. According to the story, Wallace had been hired by Denis to obtain the phone records of CP reporter Alanna Smith, who had written about the former justice minister's wedding the summer prior.
Filled as it is with caveats like “suggest” and “purportedly,” the CP story quoted unverified emails wherein the main players accuse each other of foul play.
Before this story came out, we knew small groups of individuals called political operatives – among other things – lined their pockets by digging up dirt for political masters to use in attacks on opponents. Going negative works.
One of the main goals of Trumpian, attack dog politics in general elections is to suppress the vote. Alienate enough voters, convince them to stay home on election day, you win. This is everything that is wrong with politics and helps explain low voter turnouts and growing political cynicism.
Time will tell how heated upcoming conservative leadership contests in Ottawa (and perhaps Alberta) will become, as candidates vie for their party's top spot.
Will there be any appeals to our better angels? Politicians do love to talk about hope.
