On Politics As Entertainment

Like many of you, I take a tour though media stories before heading off to work in the morning. One of my favourite reads has always been the Globe and Mail's entertainment writer John Doyle. I don't watch TV much, but his comments are frequently cheeky, insightful and just a plain good read. But in a week where politics south of the border sucked up most of the oxygen in media circles, one of his articles set me to thinking in ways I'm sure he never intended.In a piece entitled, Oh, America, I love you so, Doyle wrote  that "only a person with a heart of stone could fail to be engaged by the vim, vigour and sheer sass of the U.S. election campaign." He marvelled at Republican and Democratic personalities alike - their quirks and their penchant for flair and partisanship. But then he opined: "It is with envy that we look south right now ... Watch what unfolds in the U.S., in all its glory, and know that it's coming here sooner than some of you think. Stay tuned."Doyle was commenting on all the shenanigans as a viewer, and, sure enough, such oddball characters spewing venom fascinates some. What troubled me though was how removed it all is from present reality. To be sure, the collective anger south of the border is real, but I'm not sure the answer to it is ribald characters capitalizing on that anger and dividing Americans even further in the process. It's a zero-sum game that's likely to lead our neighbours down a dark road.  And while some might delight in the sheer theatrical belligerence of it all, behind all those stage performances lie people in desperate situations, trapped between reformers on the one hand and demagogues on the other. A large number of them will remain jobless, or their wages will decline. Consumers won't be able to spend enough to keep the economy going because their debts are now alarmingly high and their spending funds are depressingly low. Foreign markets won't buy enough American exports to make up for the shortfall because their own economies are in trouble. Neither richer Americans nor foreign consumers will invest enough to fill in the gap. Then comes the aftershock and from it will come the political backlash we have already witnessed a portion of this week. There will be anger against trade, immigration, foreigners desiring to invest, corporations, and, inevitably, government itself.So let's be careful in delighting that some of this stuff crosses the border. Canadians are already oppressed enough. Question Period in this town is a theatre of the absurd for the last few years now; everyone knows it and attempt to laugh it off. To even consider acting in such a fashion when pensioners are losing their way, food banks are facing record numbers, and those without jobs are giving up in despair is hardly the actions you would expect of political servants. In hard times, humour is always a welcome diversion. But not this kind, and not this way. The last thing we need right now is political tomfoolery disguising itself as compassion. South of the border this week, 37% of Americans voted, while 66% participated in Hallowe'en. That's scary in any political scenario and there's nothing funny about it.  It's time to get back to decent, respectful and boring politics.