Outrageous Fortune

To PC, or not to PC? That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to have public meltdowns at the first sign of trouble, like what's been happening in the PC Party over the last little while, or to suffer slings and arrows like the entire Liberal Senate caucus has been doing after Justin booted the lot of them.

These Senators, if nothing else, are loyal. Extraordinarily loyal. That's how they got to where they......were (until yesterday).....and now, apropos of nothing, they get wished all the best in their future endeavors. And for what? Because Golden Boy looked silly denouncing the Senate scandal but not actually doing anything about it. Now we have a bunch of ex-Liberal Senators on the loose, still allowed to flout the toothless rules that keep creating messes like the Senate scandal, but now freed of the entirely inadequate social pressure from their former caucus colleagues and the party leader to not screw up too publicly. If anyone had cause to complain, they sure do.

By the way, Trudeau's buddy Gerald Butts was one of the top Daltonian minds here in Ontario, and what was Dalton most famous for? Introducing out of left field stuff without consulting the lowly people whom that stuff was going to affect, of course, and causing disastrous consequences.

But like Dalton, who managed to get off essentially unscathed while people under him took the fall, Trudeau is going to get laughed at a little, but in the end will be praised by the people who matter for being such a badass as to take this problem head on. Sure, he may have made the problem worse, but because his only critic is Stephane Dion, the guy who found it difficult to make priorities, it's just going to go down as more well meaning over-exuberance on the part of the Boy Wonder. (Also, I hear Francois Hollande is in need of some help over in France, which is something Stephane might consider looking into when he ends up excommunicado from the Liberal caucus.)

Now what about those hapless PCs? What do they have to show for being open about their grievances? Declining poll numbers? Lousy press? Unneeded headaches in the middle of byelections? Like Trudeau, Hudak saw a problem- the problem of everyone in Ontario who wasn't fortunate enough to be a union stooge getting smacked right in the paycheque because the Liberals' Butts-headed policy brainwaves flushed the economy. He decided to take on the problem in his own way, boldly. But unlike Trudeau, Hudak cannot count on unflinching loyalty from those under him when the rubber hits the road. And it's not just Hudak- if Harper were to punt all his Senators, they'd be climbing over one another to get exclusive tell-all interviews with the Toronto Star.

And this is why people do not criticize their party, or leader. Going public with your beef, no matter how justified it is, never helps the situation, and it doesn't help you. There is no incentive to do so, no reward, no increase in public esteem. Because the public cannot be honest about what it is they want from their politicians, and they do not reward honesty from their politicians (which is why Stephane Dion never became Prime Minister), there is no reason for the politicians to be honest with them in turn.

They say they want open-minded and open-mouthed Senators, MP's, and MPP's, and then they turn their backs on them.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

UPDATE: Hmmph! Looks like the not-Liberal Senators collectively decided to grow a pair, and now Junior has his first real "headache" to deal with. What now? Invoke the War Measures Act, perhaps?