My problem with politics

Over at Macleans.ca, Aaron Wherry (who I constantly forget about next to more prominent Macleans bloggers; a habit I really need to get out of) has spent the last couple of days on some sort of unapologetic quest.

It all started when the Conservatives released a series of attack ads on Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, at least one of which opined that Canadians shouldn't vote for Ignatieff because he has spent a sizable portion of his life outside of Canada.

Weird logic? Sure. Irrelevant? Depends who you ask.

A letter sent to Conservative Party supporters along those lines was signed by the party's national campaign directory, Doug Finley. Mr. Finley was, in Wherry's words, "born in England, raised in Scotland, first entered politics as a Scottish Nationalist and appears to have come to Canada at the age of 22".

Wherry didn't stop after his first blow, though. He proceeded to name twenty current Conservative MPs who have studied, lived, or worked in another country - not counting the dozen or so that were born outside Canada. Then he gave a timespan of Lester B. Pearson's pre-political life - the former PM seems to have spent even more time abroad than Ignatieff.

Conservative supporters have defended themselves from these arguments with claims like "but Doug Finley's not running for anything!" and "yeah, but Pearson was working for the government of Canada when he was out of the country, that's different!".

And therein lies my problem with politics. Nobody who is either involved with or interested in politics, save for a fictional President (first quote), can ever admit the least bit of wrongdoing, poor judgement, or making a mistake - and not only on their part, but on the part of anybody they agree with.

Rather than "Opponent X did whatchamacalit!" "Half your caucus did whatchamacalit as well!" "okay maybe that's not as valid as I thought then", we get a third line of "But that doesn't count because they wore Canadian flags on their backs!", and a cycle that repeats ad nauseum, to the point where neither side actually cares about the argument anymore, they just want to win it.

It's not just Conservatives who do it - they just seem to be the ones doing more of it at the moment. Every politician is afraid that changing their mind on anything will be a sign of "flip-flopping", of weakness.

Naturally, I blame journalists. They want to keep this stuff going because it's easier to write a story about than one that requires original thought. Not sure I have any suggestions. In fact, this wasn't even the post I wanted to write today - but it was a little more topical, so the other thing gets held off for a bit.

--Ryan