Heartbreak Warfare

This title of one of my favourite John Mayer songs brought to mind a recent interview in which I was asked if I could think of a suitable metaphor for the dynamics of the present parliament.  When I responded: “The trench warfare of World War One,” the journalist, instead of registering surprise, only nodded her head in agreement.Someone started this fight somewhere in the recent past and soon enough the political armies were engaged in battle.  But there was no immediate victory; instead, both sides dug in, digging trenches for a longer campaign.  Soon enough, like the First World War in Europe, the elongated trenches stretched across the entire front.  Ground was won, then lost.  Increasingly devastating tools of war were introduced, yet still … nothing.  The best of each generation threw themselves into enemy lines and were crushed in the process.By the time it all ended, some 16.5 million people, including civilians, lost their lives.  Questions began to emerge.  Soldiers asked what it had all been for.  Some military leaders were court-marshaled for their bungling of the war effort.  Politicians were increasingly being asked, “What were you thinking?”  Governments fell, soldiers drifted into lives of silence and solitude, and entire generations were lost.  The devastation was so great that they called it the “War To End All Wars.”  A young Agatha Christie concluded: “One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.”No one is winning in Parliament at present – no one.  Polls marginally go up and down.  Politicians look for any opening to dissect their opponents.  The media has yet to truly apply itself to this kind of collective madness that is now Ottawa.  And the public?  They’re not only tuning out, but are questioning what this theatre of the macabre has to do with pensions lost, the jobs of tomorrow, climate change, the plight of the poor, the crunch coming in healthcare or what happens following Afghanistan.  Instead, politicians build their trenches, trying to skirt the opposition lines by a Guergis attack here, or waterboarding an opposition leader there.  All to no avail.And so we dig … and fight … and dig … and fight. Yet still no solution to our commitment to Africa, to women’s pay equity, or labour rights under attack.  The losses are indeed huge, but the greatest of all is the casualty of public confidence.  This was never a war effort they endorsed.  The last election knocked a few heads together, sent them back to Parliament, and told them to now make minority government work.  Yet politicians are still so busy just fighting for some kind of advantage that we forgot it was supposed to be about a woman dying in Sudan, a receding polar ice cap, or a group of dedicated soldiers wondering what lies next on their horizon.This will be the legacy of the Harper years, for it’s a scorched-earth policy he designed and endorsed.  Fearful lest they lose the ultimate struggle, the opposition parties dig as never before.  The key distinction, however, is that Mr. Harper owns the land as government and all he has to do is hold the line.  By digging more ditches and throwing people into the battle he can maintain his position as PM.This kind of war is a cowardly escape from the problem of peace, or a minority government for that matter.  The media often covers the battles, criticizes the combatants, is tantalized by the salacious, and yet fails to dissect the propaganda and guide us to a wiser future.  When all this is done, will anybody believe in the possibilities of parliamentary democracy again?  I can’t guess, but this kind of warfare is heartbreaking.