Guergis, Jaffer, and the Allure of Scandal

The country would be better served if we focused less on interpersonal affairs and more on the affairs of state.

There is something irresistible about that mix of dirt, sex, seduction, deceit, and money that satisfies our lust for specifics as we fill in the details of the political power couple in free fall. The narrative is familiar, even comforting in its well-used story lines: Pierre and Maggie, Judy and Gordon, Peter and Belinda, Julie and Maxime, and now Helena and Rahim.

The focus of media coverage is seductive indeed. Delving into the passions and indiscretions of the principal players and speculating endlessly about motivation and character, we are easily hooked. Variations on the “how the mighty have fallen” theme have been juicy public staples for as long as societies have known distinctions between the elites and the masses.

Let’s face it, we are addicted. And as responsible addicts, we need to check ourselves into rehab. Specifically, we need to reduce our dependency on the trivia of interpersonal affairs, and refocus our attention toward the affairs of state, notably the role of parliamentarians in the policy-making process.

There are, of course, often serious legal, diplomatic, and constitutional issues of state secrecy, conflict of interest, influence peddling, and so on that may need to be resolved from time to time. These should be dealt with through the appropriate channels, and not dominate our political attention either.

It should go without saying that many people, including our elected officials, occasionally act foolishly and/or illegally. But to the extent that we devote our political attention to such matters, we crowd out the focus we need to bring to more serious matters.

The amount of attention now being paid to Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer should serve to remind us of how weak and inadequate the House of Commons and even the Cabinet itself has become as a forum for national political deliberation. This is not to make a partisan or personal critique of these individuals but, on the contrary, to point to a glaring structural democratic deficit in contemporary Canada.

Canadian citizens are among the most sophisticated in the world. There is a substantial and highly educated political class that deserves more opportunity to engage than is currently available in the creaking and archaic political structures that we inherited from an era in which most people were illiterate. Canadians, notably young and idealistic Canadians, want to make a serious contribution. We have the opportunity to renew our democratic institutions, to go beyond the inadequacies of tinkering with seat distribution and term limits for senators. We need to build a powerful and vibrant legislature, full of women and men whose contributions to greater excellence in public policy are supported and valued, and who collectively are able to make Canada a more dynamic and relevant force in the world. That we are so far from this reality is evident in our collective obsession with trivia and peccadillo.

Like all rehabs, this recovery is going to take some tough love. Who will administer it? Each of us, leaders, media, and public, has a role to play.

The political class, notably the party leaders, must sacrifice short-term tactical advantage to the greater interest of maximizing the stock of political insight and policy options. Legislators must be furnished with the financial and other resources, provided with decision-making tools, and invested with the trust to make our national Parliament, for the first time in our history, a genuine forum for agenda formulation and policy initiative. The core business of Parliament must be political, focussing on how we are to live together and share our resources in a complex world.

Media professionals in general and legacy media professionals in particular need to fight against the imperatives of budget cuts and cut-throat competition to revitalize socially responsible and long-term investigative journalism in the broad public interest. We need the Fourth Estate to fight on our behalf for greater political responsibility.

Finally, each of us as citizens has the most important role in demanding better of our leaders and our media. Our House of Commons should be the very heart of the national debate and a place of deep and rich political discovery, encounter, and choice. In place of our cynical shrugs, complicit sniggering, and a passive acceptance of what passes for politics in our national institutions, we need a relentless campaign to insist on better leadership.

Who knows? We might then devote greater attention to airport security measures than to “airport meltdowns,” and focus more on the injustices of the global sex trade than on “busty hookers.”