Wanted: A Canadian politician with integrity and ethics

I haven't written here for a few months for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless I continued to follow Canadian politics with increasing anger, frustration and disappointment. The only thing you can say about this past session in the House was that it was extremely disappointing and in my opinion showed that all parties share a single minded lust for power. The welfare of the country and its citizens is purely secondary.

Like many Canadians I was filled with a sense of hope and anticipation (and even excitement!) following the Liberal leadership race last fall. There was a palpable sense that there would be a new guard who would make the Liberal party more open, responsive and transparent. In the end this was not to be. This might partly be due to Stephen Harper's continued use of U.S. Republican style tactics and his Stalin-like grip on the Conservative party (isn't it good to see that this is finally backfiring). Nevertheless the return to politics as usual (propaganda and rhetoric versus discourse and consultation, form versus substance) has been disappointing.

If the spring session weren't depressing enough a recent story run on the national (Somosa Politics) made me want to run to my doctor for some Prozac. The story shows every political party as more concerned with securing political support than with doing what is ethically right. One of the focal points of the story was a Vaisakhi parade held in Surrey this past spring. The parade was organized by a supporter of the Sikh terrorist organization Babar Khalsa. Many at the parade openly sported shirts with the International Sikh Youth Federation, a recognized terrorist organization. Other children appeared with guns on the back of their shirts. At least one of the floats displayed a picture of Talwinder Singh Parmar who is suspected to be the mastermind behind the Air India bombing.

While this is upsetting enough, the attendance of politicians at the event really shows their true colors. Hedy Pretty (NDP), Sukh Dhaliwal and Gordon Campbell (Liberal) and Nina Grewal and Jim Abbott (Conservative) all attended the event and only Gordon Campbell made any statement objecting to the open display of support for terrorist organizations. This is really mind boggling and completely unacceptable. If there isn't one yet there should be some code of ethics for these jokers. You'd think that considering that Ujjal Dosanjh was almost beaten to death by these goons and that he has recently been threatened in an extremist Sikh publication the Liberals should have been very loud and clear in their objections and their refusal to participate in the future. But no, nothing. From the leaders to the rank and file all political parties seem to becoming increasingly beholden to these terrorist groups who are abusing the political system.

Another example was the Liberal leadership convention where, according to Tarek Fatah, blocks of Sikh delegates were in fact moved to support Stephane Dion (from Gerrard Kennedy). Many of the delegates didn't have a clue which delegate they were supporting. Again this is incredible. How could the Liberal party allow the selection of delegates who had no clue about the candidates? No wonder why Bob Rae was so furious with the outcome. If this is democracy then maybe we should just return to the early days of Canadian politics and allow politicians to ply voters with alcohol and bribes to secure their vote. This is pretty much the same thing.

That the supporters came from the Kennedy camp is equally disappointing. Kennedy is one of the politicians I felt could move us into a new era. But if he knew and/or participated in this sham then he deserves only our scorn.

Thank God for summer the World Cup, Toronto FC, the Giro and the Tour. Maybe I can forget all of this by the fall. Or maybe we can convince Robert Kennedy Jr. to become Canadian!