Right in the centre - Whom do they fear?
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- Published on Thursday, May 12, 2016
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
Democracy is a funny thing. It doesn’t always give you the results you think you want.
The US presidential election looks like it’s going to deliver a race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Who would have ever wanted that? Does the American voter want a presidential choice such as that? Come on, isn’t there any better candidates in the whole of the United States than those two?
The Filipino election looks like it has elected President Duterte. Wow, he says he’s going to execute drug dealers and throw their bodies in the Manila harbour. That plays well to people who are sick and tired of drug dealers and lawlessness, but it doesn’t sound like this guy worries too much about whether the accused are actually proven guilty or not.
In Canada, 60 per cent of people don’t vote for our prime ministers. Neither Harper nor Trudeau had a majority of votes so democracy didn’t give Canadian voters their desired results either. Democracy is a strange beast.
It’s disappointing that national leaders seem to fall so short of what we all think a leader should be. There is a race to the lowest common denominator in politics that yields less than desirable results.
The answer is simple, but hard to achieve. Leaders must hold themselves to higher standards than they currently do. I have been an elected leader and I have fallen short on many occasions. There were times when I could have conducted my actions and my speech in a better fashion. More kindly, perhaps, more clearly, for certain. Leaders tend to fall off the wagon under the stress of office or the stress of achieving office.
It’s generally considered that candidates for office put on their best front when in an election. If Trump, Clinton and Duterte are putting on their best, may God help us when they get elected. If it goes downhill, we may be in for a very rough ride. Perhaps they will rise to the occasion.
Some candidates get into office relatively easy. It’s well known that the tough part about being elected in western Manitoba as an MLA or an MP is the nomination battle for a conservative candidate. In other areas, such as the City of Winnipeg, getting the nomination can be a struggle for any party, but the actual election is a year long grind of going door-to-door, identifying voters, going to every event imaginable and then grinding out the campaign with an effort to get your voters out to the polls.
The years-long saga of a US presidential election or the months-long drag of an election in Canada is enough to scare most people off. It’s a long slugfest and it’s expensive. Elections can take a lot of money, time and sacrifice. Perhaps that’s why so few seek office and so few have the statesmanship abilities to actually deserve and carry out the duties of office.
When our Manitoba cabinet ministers took their oath of office, they had to do so pledging they conduct themselves without fear or favour. That’s a tall order. Without fear or favour of mankind is tough to accomplish. The question then becomes, does the candidate fear God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and wisdom is what our leaders need. Hopefully Trump, Clinton, Duterte and Trudeau actually fear God. If they don’t, we can almost be assured that they won’t have the wisdom to lead.
