CKNW Editorial
for October 9, 2001

As you watched CNN and, from time to time the CBC, since September 11, have you has as I, the disquieting feeling that the American politicians we watched were vastly superior to our own? I watched and listened to American Secretary of State Colin Powell – cool, in charge and contrasted him to John Manley – inarticulate on this show and all over his own tongue in conflicting interviews given to the National Post. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeldt – like Powell, in charge, cool and articulate and I contrasted him to Art Eggleton, utterly unable to explain our meager capacity to help brought about by his government's dereliction of duty.

There was American Attorney-General John Ashcroft, like his colleagues, cool and articulate and dealing frankly with the sins of omission of the CIA, the FAA, the FBI and others and proposing concrete steps to rectify the situation … contrasted with Ann McLelland looking over her shoulder at Mr Chreiten and mumbling platitudes. Along side Ms McLelland, of course, is the utterly incompetent Elinor Caplan, the Minister of Immigration who clearly has no grasp of the situation whatever. I tried hard, without success, to keep the nauseating picture of Hedy Fry out of my mind.

I then thought of Senators Tom Draschle and Trent Lott and Representative Richard Gephardt. There are no Canadian Parliamentary leaders to compare them too because the Canadian system doesn’t have parliamentary leaders.

But these men were head and shoulders above any Canadian Parliamentarian – direct, articulate, and leaders all.

Now it is not my point that all American Cabinet members are better than all Canadian ones – nor do I suggest that all American parliamentarians are better than their American counterparts. It’s just that in the vast majority of cases it’s true. And I think we should ask ourselves, why?

I think it’s the same reason you don’t find British Columbians amongst Canada’s national leaders – the system militates against it.

Now before going further let me make it clear that there are turkeys in all branches of the American system – and we must always remember that a heartbeat away from the presidency have been the likes of Spiro Agnew and Dan Quayle. But I would argue that American politicians, elected and appointed, have one thing notably lacking in Canadian politicians – character. Now for the purpose of this discussion I define character narrowly as having the courage of one’s convictions – convictions which may well be questionable to plenty of people but convictions all the same.

Let’s examine the House of Representatives and the House of Commons. The President of the United States has no power over the American House. Of course he has influence but then it works the other way around too. How then does the Congressman get ahead in his place of work?

After winning a life and death struggle, usually, to gain a nomination, he builds contacts and alliances with like minded colleagues of both parties. He does, for a time, respect his elders, but he is always looking for ways to advance the interests of his district and indeed his region. He always listens very carefully to his constituents. In doing this he is, of course, building his own power base but what’s wrong with that?

Compare and contrast him with his Canadian counterpart. One could do worse than look at the career of the highly regarded and much experienced Stephen Owen. Selected by the Prime Minister personally to run in Quadra – no doubt Mr Chretien saw him on his record, as immediate cabinet material to replace the hopeless Hedy Fry or the lacklustre Herb Dhaliwal … and in fact Raymond Chan’s job became available - Mr Owen immediately made an almost fatal error. Speaking on this show and later to the National Post, Mr Owen criticized the concept of an Ethics Commissioner appointed by and reporting to the Prime Minister – this was at the height of the Shawinigate scandal – and plumped for a position appointed by Parliament as was the case in British Columbia. Immediately Mr Owen was brought before the Chretien version of the bar of justice and forced, as if by the medieval Inquisition, to recant. He was sent to the far reaches of the backbench and told to behave himself. Having distinguished himself by an utter absence of pronouncement on anything remotely controversial, Mr Own is, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, half way back on his rehabilitation program. When he firmly establishes that he has learned his lesson and is thoroughly trained, look to Mr Chretien to give Mr Owen his "honourable".

As to Cabinet, the President of the United States can appoint whom he chooses while the Prime Minister is confined to Members of Parliament. While the American system doesn’t preclude the appointment of a presidential ass kisser, in general, especially in times of peril, presidents have appointed able men and women of character. The very opposite applies in Canada.

There are many flaws in the American system although they are flaws of practice rather than process, the principal one being that money counts for so much.

But taking into account all the flaws, surely no one could, after watching the last three weeks of political activity on both sides of the border, deny that our politicians look pretty pathetic up against their American counterparts. And the reason is obvious – for all its shortcomings, the American system in the House, the Senate and the Administration is basically a meritocracy where you have to be good – have character – to succeed whereas in Canada a cabinet minister is an MP a bit better at toadying to the prime minister than the rest of the lickspittles.

As long as Canada maintains a system where bootlicking is a condition precedent to attaining high office it will only be by the sheerest of accidents that anyone competent gets to the top.