On A West Wing And A Prayer

My kids just couldn't wait. I arrived back from Ottawa to be presented with my early Father's Day present - the complete DVD set of the West Wing series. Like so many others, I watched most episodes over the years and it became my favorite TV show. My wife and I settled in for a couple of hours and watched some of the first season, commercial free. We were both surprised at the profound effect it had on us.Years previous, I viewed the show in a kind of haze of idealism, understanding that politics probably was a lot messier. And yet I'm coming out of this weekend with a proven view, learned from the last two years in the House, that the kind of politics exemplified by the West Wing series is still alive in Ottawa but as a mere flicker of a flame.  Where the series was about smart, very smart, people combining their skills to better America, in our capital we have clever partisans whose job it is to win, regardless of the effect on the country. The President, played by Martin Sheen, was a flawed leader, but one whose instincts took him to those more refined places in political life that left room for compromise and understanding of different views.  In Canada, however - well, it doesn't matter, you know what I'm about to say.Lester Pearson used to say that the greatest effect of politics on a politician is that it actually helped that person to grow into their job, to become more of an understanding Canadian as a result. He might have added that it ought to make politicians more humble in that acquired knowledge as well. I think everyone reading these words right now will probably agree that we've moved away from that ideal. Something seedy or unseemly has taken root in our national political life - we sense it and our hopes, needed now more than ever, are diminished by it. In truth, we are diminished by it. As our nation is minimized in the world by our hyper-partisan politics, we ourselves are facing our own isolation, removed from our fellow Canadians and a once appreciative world by a political elite that endeavours to separate us into regions and from one another.Have we lost the ability to speak to one another? Absolutely not. Each and every day we dialogue through our churches, schools, universities, service clubs, the Internet and even the media, and that conversation is the lifeblood of our society. It is when we turn to politics that we yell, scream and refuse to listen.  Churchill had it right when he stated: "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary.  It fulfills the same function as pain the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." But that's just the thing: our present politics isn't about healthy criticism but crippling blame, and we are the poorer for it.I tucked my kids into bed tonight, prayed with them, and said I'd been gone to Ottawa before they woke up in the morning and that I'd miss them.  "Do good, Daddy," my daughter Abuk whispered. What could I say? I came down the stairs and put on another session of West Wing and I prayed for political healing in this land.