TORONTO – Some will say it has always been thus: there is an absence of civility in politics and a surfeit of deceit. One should always expect to pronounce the “et tu Brute” moment.
Try as one might, exceptions are not only difficult to find but if and when discovered, they prove the rule. By politics one should include the circle of “collaborators”, supporters, hangers-on and those who make “things happen” for aspiring or “reigning” members of the political class.
President Biden had barely been sworn in when Catholics and Unionists – the Labourers international Union of North America, in particular – felt the sting of what they considered the great betrayal of their interests: the rejection of the pro-Life position and the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, respectively.
LiUNA had counted on the biggest infrastructure program in two countries to boost job opportunities for its 600,000 members.
Leaders will never be held hostage to any group if the purposes do not match their personal goals. At any rate, LiUNA motivated social media diatribes against Biden will surely not reflect well on their Canadian cousins and their relationship with our government.
It is probably why Derek Sloan, MP, and former Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate, was so unceremoniously dumped from caucus by his leader Erin O’Toole. Both are Catholic. O’Toole or the people around him could no brook a potential rival around whom any dissenters on policy might gravitate or against whom Partisan mudslinging might resonate. He was ripe for vilification.
The dynamics for the governing Liberal Party are not dissimilar.
Ramesh Sangha, MP for Brampton Centre, was a tipping “glass on a shelf” waiting to be dropped. An anticipated election dictated he be removed prior to, once again, becoming an uncomfortable issue during the campaign.
MP Sangha had questioned the utility of radical Sikhism in the Canadian Cabinet when India’s Prime Minister seemed overtly distrusting of Canada’s perceived meddling in his country’s affairs during the last go-round. After former Minister Bains retired from Cabinet and caucus, political observers held their breath waiting for the other shoe to drop.
No official reasons were provided but NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was quick to allege religious intolerance on the part of MP Sangha, whose riding many expect him to contest.
Whatever the reasons, none of them could possibly match the quasi-silent voices of rationality surrounding the premature exiting of Canada’s [vice] Head of State for creating a “toxic work environment” at Rideau Hall. No documented and verified proof of the toxicity, save for some unsubstantiated allegations. She is gone. Former Governor General Payette, irrespective of what may have been her people skills, was unquestionably a person of remarkable intellectual capacity and one of notable international achievement.
To paraphrase [St.] Thomas More before his beheading to serve the interests of King Henry VIII, “put ye not your faith in Princes”.
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