Leadership revisited

Readers may recall that I have for some time argued against the sort of “strong leadership” favoured by the Conservative Party of Canada. The sort I oppose is where a leader promises “a vision” that is never fully spelled out and, after asking for support from citizens, runs the show his/her way, with a tough-love, manipulatory approach, absolutely sure that s/he has the answers, often seeking to maintain threshold support among those who have lesser education.

Thankfully, such leadership usually fails, but often not until after a fair bit of damage has been done and a variety of alternative futures spent.

Canadians in significant measure seem to prefer “democratic leadership”, where leaders, albeit sometimes charismatic, seek to figure out where most of us wish to go and then simply lead the parade, nudging us gently in a progressive direction to the future. Recent polling data appears to favour this conclusion.

Ipsos not all that long ago found that in almost all categories, Stéphane Dion’s reputation as a strong leader declined further. But within days, arguably Canada’s best pollster had the Liberals leading the Conservatives.

Now it’s possible that if Stéphane was out of the picture and Michael (who’s the man) Ignatieff won leadership, profiling the sort of “strong leadership” that makes him attractive to some Conservatives, then the Liberal numbers might be higher. Perhaps.

But what’s interesting, in past weeks, is the degree to which Bob Rae is beginning to look like the sort of leader we might well prefer. Indeed, rumours are that even within the Liberal caucus Rae is turning some support from Iggy to both Stéphane and himself, leaving Iggy serving in the spirit of the rat pack that brought the last Conservative government down.

Both Stéphane and Bob, in the words of McLuhan, are cool personalities, the sort associated with the sound of cool jazz. Sure, Bob likes to ham it up from time to time, and while Stéphane may be cool, he’s not very smooth. But compared to both, Iggy is as hot as Steven.

And while I wish not to annoy those of my friends at the university, given that I don’t exactly have a lot of friends to begin with, we’ve been without a President for nearly six months and, if anything, things may be improving!

This apparent Canadian inclination for democratic leadership has to be a concern for Jack Layton, who not only has a hot personality, but who also has a couple of strong members in caucus who might well do a better job of leading both the party and many Canadians where and how they wish to go.

Finally, before leaving this hobby horse, perhaps it’s worth spending a few minutes thinking about the integrity of the “strong leadership” our Prime Minister has shown recently, when he seemed unprepared to address security concerns regarding his Minister of Foreign Affairs until the latter was finally held to account for leaving, it appears, secret documents at a friend’s house. If that is leadership, then I’m a…well perhaps we might leave that sentence to end for itself.

Party politics at the municipal level

As we move to fall elections, we might also revisit the question of whether or not quasi-party politics belongs at the municipal level.

Municipal politics, both because they concern issues very close to the quality of our lives and because they afford a genuine opportunity for ordinary folks to affect government through the participation opportunities that small-scale direct democracy allows, are the best bastion of deliberative democracy.

Having folks draw lines in the sand, taunting the other guys, is no way to run a town, county, or even a city. We need a council of people that is diverse in its commitments and knowledge, and quasi-party politics tends to produce the sort of division that limits both. And we need mayors that respect the will of the people even as they nudge the people gently in progressive directions, meeting the challenges of the future. Hope to see your name on the ballot.