The difference between public opinion polls in Canada and the US is that in the former, politicians use them to structure policy; in the later, citizens use them to know what to think. In both countries, almost no one trusts politicians... those who do trust them are people who likely think that if you drop something heavy, it will float away... Duh!
The lack of trust is a malaise spreading across many once revered professions... Doctors for example are not up at the top anymore: the once lowly schoolteacher is more highly regarded! The Canadian Government, ever slow to catch on to the public's sensibilities and perceptions, requires that a School Principal or a Doctor attest in writing, to verify one's identity when a passport application is being prepared. Schoolteachers are not considered trustworthy enough by the government in that regard!
The public on the other hand, evidently do not trust Teacher’s Unions. That became obvious in BC this past month! In the BC provincial election the Liberal Party and NDP Party, each spent 3.7 million dollars on their respective campaigns. The BC Teacher's Union spent over 5 million dollars just to smear the Liberals... and it did not work... all that well!
Wouldn't it be better if the BC Teachers' Union spent most of that money on upgrading their member's skills so that hundreds, if not thousands of parents, are spared the need to camp outside of non-union schools where they seem to prefer to enrol their kids? Of BC's nearly 300 High Schools, the top 10, according to The Fraser Institute, a think tank, said in their recent annual High School report card that only one school with staff from the BC Teachers' Federation made the top 10 and it was, predictably, #10! Maybe the Teachers' Union should order one of those think tanks...
The audacity of this same union went somewhat unnoticed a few months ago. Using patronizing lectures by way of media press releases, they announced a new methodology for selecting students for the very popular, much better funded and highly resourced French Immersion programs. This bit of brilliance is designed to save the union the embarrassment of stepping over determined parents, who resort to sleeping in the streets, in front of schools, for weeks in advance of registration. It confuses the
News Media who might assume that something truly important is happening, like say, the release of a
Star Wars sequel to a pre-quelled sequel… or something! Only in Basically Communist, er make that just B.C., would a Union, so in love with itself, its self-importance and presumed influence, act as if that kind of crap would be considered acceptable! Ralph Klein, Deo Gratis Rex of Alberta, would probably lay-off the incompetents and hire Quebecois teachers to accommodate his constituency. Anywhere else in the first, second or even in most of the third world, unions would attempt to upgrade member's skills rather than throw millions of dollars and thousands of press releases at the public, expecting to mold and shape public opinion, as if we are all an unruly class of third graders!
So if we do not trust Politicians, Doctors, or Policemen what does that mean? Best-case scenario we relearn to trust our family members, an ancient practice which seems to have fallen off the radar in the last decade. Worst case scenario, we don't sign our organ donor cards... What if we have an accident, in say Quebec, where the perception seems to exist and is daily reinforced by the Gomery commission, that a politician's kids or Mafioso's bambini will get our kid’s body parts, regardless of the actual health of our loved ones!
Recently, a good friend told me a strange and sad tale. His very elderly father was in a local hospital and as the Buddhist doctor (he asked!) who was in charge told him... it was his father’s time, his Karma and destiny to die, but not to worry, she would make sure the end would be painless and soon. He worried, weekly, daily, hourly, by phone and in person. The Doctor did not want to be that popular I guess. My friend, being a devout Christian and knowing that his father was not... was highly motivated to get his dad under the care of a Christian physician, if for no other reason than to gain more time and opportunities to share the gospel with his father. This long-short story, or short-long story has a happy conclusion for everyone concerned. His dad got a doctor who understood the son's sensibilities; the father lived for another year, enjoyed new depths of relationship with his son, lived happily and painlessly…, and converted. According to his son, he is living in heaven with the God of all Creation at this very moment rather than being recycled as a mosquito swarming somewhere around Winnipeg... even the Buddhist doctor was cured of a very real pain in her butt! I wonder if I would think to ask this kind of question under these circumstances?
So, just as a teacher would ask at this point... what have we learned about trust? I guess we do not and cannot trust anybody. I do not even trust myself to remember to ask the right questions at the right time; to save my kid’s liver, my wife’s heart, or the last couple of months of my father’s life!
However, seriously folks, was there ever any doubt that anyone would ever admit to trusting a politician? That would be about as unlikely as finding weapons of mass destruction in a third world country like… say Iraq?
