Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
I think that we need to stand up against parties nominating mediocre boobs in safe ridings as a general principle
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I'm afraid Canadians don't care about this issue so it would be a pretty small gathering if you did get people to stand up.
I think the problem is one of supply reducing the competition for nomination. There aren't enough highly qualified people willing to run for public office in this country for a few reasons:
1) The pay is insufficient compared to what top professionals earn in the private sector. $158,000 is nowhere near enough compensation for a back bench MP. The government was budgeted to spend 258 Billion dollars in 2009. The board of directors of such an organisation should be compensated appropriately.
2) The abuse that public figures face is incredible. I remember in the first Conservative Minority when they fulfilled a promise to nominate a committee of eminent Canadians to make reccomendations about government accountability, and the nominated Chair was Gwyn Morgan - the former president of Encana. This is a man who was Canadian CEO of the year and served on the board of directors of many large international corporations - HSBC (the world's largest bank) as a director, SNC Lavalin and many others. He was drummed out of the running because he made some comments about gang culture and lawlessness in Jamaica (which is true) and the worries that that those cultural influence is being carried over to Canada by immigrants in Toronto (also true), all out of context from a speech he had given. Why would an intelligent, thoughtful professional such as myself want to expose my family to such a potential onslaught?
3) The travel is killer. If you're an MP from outside of Ontario/Quebec, you are flying across country every week that Parliament is in session to return to your riding for a couple of days over the weekend.
4) If you are successful (i.e. you own a business) those assets are frozen and can be leveraged against you.
This leads us to what we get for public servants:
- The Egomaniacal (those who believe that they should be PM someday, regardless of statistical evidence to the contrary)
- The Unqualified (those who have a political science degree or are Realtors or are former Property Developers and are unable to do much else plus those who believe that the salary would be an improvement over their current situation)
- The Press (tired of working from the outside, want to try the game from the inside)
- The Lawyers (see The Press, above)
- The Misinformed (those who belive that they can change the system from within or rise to the top on merit when the only thing that matters is how you play a game that is ran by Egomaniacs and Lawyers)
When, despite his high profile gaffes of a decade ago, Rob Anders can't be defeated in a riding nomination by a quality candidate in what is one of the safest ridings in the country, it points to a basic lack of competitiveness and the fact that name recognition is everything in those proccesses.
It's a sad state.