Ian C. MacLeod -- Whatever else one might say about politicians, on this, they are not stupid

Yesterday, two blog posts caught the eye of a longtime provincial, and federal Liberal, who lives here in Kamloops.  To say the least, he didn’t like them, and he made that known on Facebook where I also had them posted.

One was written by John Feldsted (The choices are difficult and made worse by ‘attack ads’ where one party or group attacks one of the other leaders and suggests, without evidence, that he will do great harm)

… the other was written by me (Honestly though John, and to anyone reading this, it doesn't matter who started it -- it's bullshit and it should stop)

Another individual, Ian C. MacLeod saw them as well, and he responded by stating:

“As I have said before, these types of ads are awful, but the political parties use them because they work. So sad”.

In my post yesterday I stated that I was disappointed by attack ads, issued by any group or organization, because they sensationalized minor imperfections, and were close, in content, to be outright lies.  What Ian had to say, in my opinion, was more to do about the hateful things that get said and done to tear down others … in this case political parties and leaders.

Ian continued his thoughts in a message to me:

Expecting reason and balance in an election campaign would be nice, but on the long-established record, amounts to wishful thinking, in the highest degree of naivety.

"Whatever else one might say about politicians, on this, they are not stupid"

Like Pavlov’s dogs they do that for which they get rewarded by the voters. If lying, mudslinging, and undeliverable promises are what the voters will reward, the politicians will deliver!

At the end of the day, we get what we reward (and, arguably, what we deserve, if we are too lazy to make ourselves informed).

Having said that, for all the flaws in our systems, and with our parties and candidates, we are still free to vote.

We must make a choice.

Sometimes the best choice is the least bad choice (recognizing that perfection is impossible).

ABOUT Ian MacLeod:

Ian C. MacLeod is a retired lawyer. Before law, he spent 15 years as a banker in BC (for of them as a small-town branch manager). He has lived or worked in 14 BC communities, in all regions and sizes, plus 3 others in Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Ian has been heavily involved in volunteer community service, serving on the leadership of over 40 volunteer and community organizations, heading 14 of them.

He has written widely on public policy issues, and has received several awards, including the Canada 125 Medal (1992) and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002).