Jump to content

Quality of Canada's public leadership - is there a cause for concern?


Recommended Posts

Just out of the head recently, without even attempt to exhausting:

- Canada's PM found in violation of ethics multiple times

- Canada's Governor General retired in a scandal

- Ongoing sexual misconduct investigations in RCMP and CAF

- Dismal epidemiological preparedness and response to Covid-19

- Phoenix system disaster

- Hypocritical lockdown behavior

- Consistent failure to achieve any of the set essential goals (child poverty, clean water, climate change etc).

Questions: at which point isolated events become a pattern? And at which line a pattern becomes a systemic problem?

And btw will it get any better?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We can always do better of course, but Canada is at the top of the democracy index, outperforming even the United States.  Canada is also among the least corrupt in the world.

It's important to reveal when indiduals in public service fail to live up to standards, and our media does a good job of exposing those lapses.  I think it's also important to know that Canada is better than almost every other country in terms of its political culture.

Some of the things you've listed as failures are really just differences of opinion.  You think something about lockdowns are hypocritical; I disagree.

Failure to achieve certain goals - that is less a leadership issue than an issue of how people within our society view those issues.  Many people think poverty is the fault of the poor and that gov already provides more than enough support. Same with the water issues on reserves and climate change actions.  How much any government pushes a policy that a significant portion of the population opposes is a feature of democracy, not an indictment of it.

So, I do not think there is reason for "concern", although we should always, imo, pay attention to what our politicians are doing and how we, as a country, can improve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, dialamah said:

 Canada is also among the least corrupt in the world.

Comparing different countries by abstract number may not be a reliable ground for making such statements, in my personal view at least. And in any case, the cited examples, and sure SNC-Lavalin affair can be added to the list, is just as objective factor, if not more than an index. So is this performance in the very recent period, consistent with a modern, robust and transparent democracy? Is there a line that separates "can do better" from "not good enough" and where should it be placed?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, myata said:

Comparing different countries by abstract number may not be a reliable ground for making such statements, in my personal view at least. And in any case, the cited examples, and sure SNC-Lavalin affair can be added to the list, is just as objective factor, if not more than an index. So is this performance in the very recent period, consistent with a modern, robust and transparent democracy? Is there a line that separates "can do better" from "not good enough" and where should it be placed?

I guess one acknowledges success as well as opportunities for improvement, while the other only sees failure.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, dialamah said:

I guess one acknowledges success as well as opportunities for improvement, while the other only sees failure.

 

The OP was talking about the number of failures within a very short period of time, the density of failures in public administration. And so again, is there a point, a line where "can be better" is no longer "good enough"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, dialamah said:

We can always do better of course, but Canada is at the top of the democracy index, outperforming even the United States.  Canada is also among the least corrupt in the world.

It's important to reveal when indiduals in public service fail to live up to standards, and our media does a good job of exposing those lapses. 

Canada is one of the least corrupt because we don't investigate corruption. And the media does a miserable job of exposing ethical lapses because the media in Canada, for the most part, don't have more than a handful of reporters. They rely instead on things picked up from international news services.

If Canadian society was so pure and clean it would be possible to hire a contractor or get your car repaired without getting a dozen references in hopes of finding an honest one. You could hire a tow truck without getting driven to the cleaners. And we wouldn't have a government so determined to protect the profits of oligopolies which charge the world's highest prices for everything from banking and investment services to internet, cable and cell phone coverage.

When a reporter started asking questions of a government bureaucrat about a contract with a supplier, what did that department do? It notified the company so they could prepare themselves and threaten the reporter. When another company was threatened with criminal charges the prime minister fired his justice minister to defend them. Government contracts routinely go to friends of the party in power and are routinely higher than could be found elsewhere. 

Brian Mulroney took payoffs from Airbus and was never punished. Jean Chretien fired the head of a government bank because after ordering them to loan money to a criminal the bank moved to foreclose when the criminal paid nothing back. Then he tried to get the former bank head arrested. Chretien was never charged with anything either. 

Just because you're not reading about corruption and no one is charged does not mean we're even remotely free of corruption at all levels of government. Try checking out the actions of your local mayor and council sometime and compare them to donations from developers.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, dialamah said:

We can always do better of course, but Canada is at the top of the democracy index, outperforming even the United States.  Canada is also among the least corrupt in the world.

It's important to reveal when indiduals in public service fail to live up to standards, and our media does a good job of exposing those lapses.  I think it's also important to know that Canada is better than almost every other country in terms of its political culture.

Some of the things you've listed as failures are really just differences of opinion.  You think something about lockdowns are hypocritical; I disagree.

Failure to achieve certain goals - that is less a leadership issue than an issue of how people within our society view those issues.  Many people think poverty is the fault of the poor and that gov already provides more than enough support. Same with the water issues on reserves and climate change actions.  How much any government pushes a policy that a significant portion of the population opposes is a feature of democracy, not an indictment of it.

So, I do not think there is reason for "concern", although we should always, imo, pay attention to what our politicians are doing and how we, as a country, can improve.

I think your sources are perhaps skewed the whole world loves Canada, were so polite, and friendly . And yet as a a world leading democracy our constitution is not ratified by all Canadians, our country is divided in so many groups it is hard to keep track, we actually have a province who's governing party wants to separate from the rest of us, lets not even mention the block and its federal status , in other provinces there is a large movement that also wants to separate as well. Not even going to mention the struggles our indigenous people have been put through , and still going through like clean water, housing etc etc,,, I Find it hard to imagine us belonging to the top 20, unless the rest of the world is really screwed up...

As for corruption SNC has got to ring a bell, not to mention Canadian companies do not have a sterling reputation across the globe. unless buying hookers for some leaders son is OK ... or refusing to go into Iraq then bending over to the Americans , after all the work is done to get contracts worth bils...

Political culture, do we really have one , i can't see it... what i see is just another practice that divides us as a nation where one side can not even talk to the other side.

Which things do you see on that list as a difference of opinion, what i see is the list is missing huge chunks of what this government has done to screw things up, WE scandal, SNC scandal, trying to influence the minister of justice in order to save a companies good name, one that black mailed the country by saying it was going to leave... changes to the fire arms act, where they have to lie and make up stats to try to convince the population it's bad and evil, we should also mention the budget or should i say deficit that is simply beyond imagination ...it looks like the liberals are actually trying to sabotage their own chances to get reelected , and instead the Canadian people are lapping it up. the more they screw up the more the people like them....it is sickening really...  

people on the left have been lulled into a sense of false security by a party who has mastered the art, i think they invented it...  And day after day they make excuses for this cluster F**** we call a government as they are not accountable to anyone for any thing.  

 

Edited by Army Guy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Army Guy said:

As for corruption SNC has got to ring a bell, not to mention Canadian companies do not have a sterling reputation across the globe. unless buying hookers for some leaders son is OK ... or refusing to go into Iraq then bending over to the Americans , after all the work is done to get contracts worth bils...

And again, we can dream to ourselves how cute we are and universally loved and unconditionally too, only the facts tell otherwise. Twice in a row, despite all the persuasion and cuteness the nations denied us the seat at the Security Council. I would love it to play out differently. But wouldn't it take also being different? Not playing the tunes of a stellar example of a modern democracy but actually be a real, practical example of one, in transparency and responsibility of governments, in dynamic and inclusive economy, in the native matters and so on? So that there wouldn't be much need to talk and convince, just show.

Edited by myata
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, dialamah said:

We can always do better of course, but Canada is at the top of the democracy index, outperforming even the United States.  Canada is also among the least corrupt in the world.

It's important to reveal when indiduals in public service fail to live up to standards, and our media does a good job of exposing those lapses.  I think it's also important to know that Canada is better than almost every other country in terms of its political culture.

Some of the things you've listed as failures are really just differences of opinion.  You think something about lockdowns are hypocritical; I disagree.

Failure to achieve certain goals - that is less a leadership issue than an issue of how people within our society view those issues.  Many people think poverty is the fault of the poor and that gov already provides more than enough support. Same with the water issues on reserves and climate change actions.  How much any government pushes a policy that a significant portion of the population opposes is a feature of democracy, not an indictment of it.

So, I do not think there is reason for "concern", although we should always, imo, pay attention to what our politicians are doing and how we, as a country, can improve.

I am just wondering to myself as to whether your alarm clock in your head went off as of yet or are you still asleep? Stop trying to make excuses and trying to make everything appear like all is well and that we must always look at the bright side of things and that Canada is not so bad off like other countries. The problem with that thought in your head is that Canada is not doing so well and is going down the tubes every day that goes by.

Our dear leaders have made a bloody mess of this once great nation called Canada. All they have been doing for decades now is to keep raising taxes, give us more government, and have taken away many of our freedoms especially since this Covid foolishness came along. 

The buffoon that is running and ruling over and ruining this country keeps borrowing money and spending that money on totally useless liberal socialist foreign aid programs and agendas that are not doing a dam thing to try and make Canada great again. Canada's debt is heading towards the one trillion dollar mark in another couple of years the way our politicians keep borrowing and spending money. If you are trying to convince me that all is well, well, in my opinion, it is not working. We are fast headed for a big time economic and monetary disaster. A crash will happen. And who knows that maybe that is the plan for all we know. Hey, we never know, eh? 

Canadians are in big trouble these days and I believe that if we do not get back to our old normal lives we will be all going bonkers. It is starting to happen to me already and I have had enough of this virus nonsense. We are a people that have always been use to coming and going and having FUN as we pleased.

Today, all of that has been pretty much taken away from us all over some virus. My attitude towards this Covid virus is that it can go to hell. I never believed init from the beginning that this virus was all that serious to worry about. A thousand or so Canadians supposedly died from this Covid virus. Out of a population of 37 million Canadians that is peanuts. 

All I am going to say here for now is that Canadians need to stop listening to their politicians and the media and stop allowing them to constantly keep Canadians always in a state of fear and panic and paranoia when there is no need to be in that state at all. Just my opinion. ;)  

 

Edited by taxme
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, taxme said:

Our dear leaders have made a bloody mess of this once great nation called Canada. All they have been doing for decades...

Correction: not the leaders, no it would have been to easy. The mirror. Us. Laziness; complacency; boredom; unfettered national focus on beer, bread and circuses. We did it, by allowing and accepting the status quo. And there's nobody else to blame.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, myata said:

Correction: not the leaders, no it would have been to easy. The mirror. Us. Laziness; complacency; boredom; unfettered national focus on beer, bread and circuses. We did it, by allowing and accepting the status quo. And there's nobody else to blame.

We are also manipulated, being lead like barn animals to our political oblivion. Cow after cow, chicken after chicken.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...