Paul Johnson

It says here that much of the political posturing and positioning that has begun for the 2011 Ontario Election in October is not only boring to me – but at the same time, very disappointing. And here’s the problem. Stop me if you’ve heard this before; I don’t know of ANY politician in history who is completely honest – ALL of the time.

Do you?

Granted – perhaps my somewhat narrow-minded thinking is not all my fault. A relative of mine who I truly respect had this to say every time a new election rolled around.

“Young Paul, here’s all you need to know about politics and politicians. You show me a politician and I’ll show you a liar.”

Extreme? Yes.
Factual? Not entirely.
Completely false? Not entirely.

At the heart of the matter for me is this. Politicians only have a job that means anything when “we the people” decide to give them the votes they need to gain a level power and/or decision making ability. From School Trustees to MPP’s and all the way to 24 Sussex, WE are the ones who provide these men and women with the power to elicit change. We. Us. You and me.

And what do we ask for in return? In a word; honesty. Is that so hard? All we ask is that they represent us the way that they promised they would. The key word being: promised.

But time and time again, what is the one thing that most of the voting public complains about when it comes to politicians and government leaders? You guessed it – they don’t deliver on promises made while they were trying to secure our votes.

How can you be a representative of our best interest if you promise to do A, B, C and D in order to gain our voting confidence and then shortly thereafter only deliver “most of” A, and a little bit of C when you find yourself in the position to do so? Believe me, I’m not alone in this thinking, but – when is it going to change? The answer: sometime shortly after hell freezes over.

The difficulty is that falsehood, veiled promises and half-truths are par for the course in the political world. If you don’t promise the world you can’t get the votes. It sucks, but it’s true and the truly unfortunate part of it all is the fact that once they win – they don’t have to deliver on all of their promises because they have 4 years to work with. Accountability in the world of politics just doesn’t exist. You want proof? Thanks to the HST and electricity bills four months ago you’d have been lucky to find 100 people in Ontario that would have voted for another term for Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals. However, in two recent polls they are leading the way again. Apparently we the voters have VERY short memories. To be frank, I don’t have anything against the Liberals (or any other party for that matter), but just follow the news and you’ll see what I mean.

So what do we do? Well, we continue to do what we’ve always done. Listen intently to the promises that are made and the policies that are going to be put in place. Then; perhaps most importantly; we need to get out and vote accordingly.

Following that – shortly after Election Day on October 6th, those of us who voted for the winner will sit, and wait, and hope that our vote actually means something.

Something like: A, B, C and D.

Have a day and listen very carefully.

Paul