Politicians: Good People in a Broken System

By Matt Conrad

Dear Tim,

I wrote you, but you still ain’t calling…

I left my cell, my email, and my work phone at the bottom…

No, I’m not some “Stan” of our Premier.

In fact, I’ve actually been quite frustrated as of late. Did I vote for this government in the last election? Yeah, I did.

That’s because I really liked what I was seeing in the first four years of their mandate.

See, I’m politically neutral. I look at platforms, and I look at what society needs in the current moment. And then I cast my vote thoughtfully.

Lately, though, I’ve had a bit of political apathy that has overcome me that I’ve never had before. I wanted to be involved in politics since I was 14 years old; however, our recent political climate seems to have killed that.

Recently, I had a cause of my own that I wanted to be heard on. Outside of one politician, I was basically getting ignored.

And it has helped me conclude my theory of two political beliefs.

The only way to get yourself heard or get things done is:

1. Be a large donor.

2. Gather enough people who represent votes to make a government worry.

That’s it, folks! That’s the secret to getting your issue heard or getting it done in our political system.

This isn’t even picking on the current governments of our day. It’s a system that has been created by party politics.

We are in a system that is more focused on their next move, to get in power or stay in power, than they are about serving the population.

It feels like the conversations behind closed doors aren’t about “How can we help people?” but more about “Will this decision have people like us enough to continue supporting us?”. Wrong motive. 

I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with three different Premiers, one from each of the three major parties, and I got to have a good, deep discussion and ask them important questions.

And do you know what? I liked all three of them. They seemed like good people. They seemed like people who got into politics for a reason. They seemed like people who truly cared. And for the two that we spoke to who were no longer Premier, you could tell they were out of the system. Sure, they defended their decisions, but they didn’t seem so guarded about their party.

I would sit down and have a beer with them again any day.

So this leads me to conclude that good people do go into politics, and they do so to try to make a difference, but I don’t know if they are fully ready for the system that they get consumed by.

This system has created a climate of tribalism that I feel is growing more and more.

This is a dangerous thing to happen. Politics aren’t sports teams. We aren’t supposed to be forever dedicated to one party, no matter their flaws.

Tribalism and the system have given rise to a deep anger towards our elected officials.

We’ve seen a rise in violence towards them or a complete apathy towards them as people. In some cases, people seem to be OK with them being hurt or dying.

Protesting is a part of our system; we need it.

But recently, capitalism is being confused with corporatism, and it’s spilling into our politics.

Violence is never the answer in a society, but I do worry that it will only increase if we don’t change the system that we are currently working in, globally, not just Canada.

That is not an endorsement of violence; I’m against it. Full stop. I’m just stating what I’m seeing.

I don’t have a technical answer on how to fix our system, but what I do know is that two things need to happen.

We the people need to wake up and realize politicians are people and are trying to do a job just like everyone else. So we need to keep our humanity and remain civil.

The second thing we need to do is, our politicians need to look at true electoral reform and give the power back to the people they work for.

I don’t know who keeps the system the way it is or why our politicians fall into the same old, same old… but it’s getting old.