Hillbilly politics in Nova Scotia
Cats: politics|There’s an election on in our parts. It’s mind-numbingly dull, uninspired and void of any ideas, big or small.
As the world rides an economic storm and tries to plot its future, our political class keeps its eye on the rearview mirror and its fingers stuck in its ears. They just sing “la-la-la” and all that complicated stuff happening “out there” goes away.
Poof! And you’re back in good ole Nova Scotia where the landscape is pretty, the culture is quaint, and the people have some of the highest cancer, MS and obesity rates in the world.
But that’s the stuff they don’t like to mention here. Too complicated.
Make no mistake, there’s plenty of good ideas here and lots of smart people trying to get us out of our 19th-century thinking, but these voices aren’t well represented in our politics. They may as well beat their heads against a brick wall.
So we end up with the dumb rump running the show. We also end up with reputation for being slow and backwards. Too bad for us.
Light the campfire and pass the banjo, people, it’s election time in Nova Scotia.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I know it seems like I hate on NS a lot, but seriously sometimes I can’t get over the fact that we’re still trying to milk a reputation that stopped being accurate 25 years ago.
“Friendly Nova Scotians?” For real?!? We have the same media access as anyone else in Canada or the States, the same basic morals and aspirations… how many friendly fishermen with 12 kids do any of us actually know? Maybe our parents’ generation, but now my fellow 20-somethings and I are more concerned with blackberries and business casual.
Globalization has levelled the playing field for assholes. Not everyone is one, but everyone has the same potential to become one.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Racquel, agreed.
The sad and frustrating part is that it IS a great place and there’s so much potential here. But it’s untapped by “rearview mirror thinking” (a great little McLuhanism) by gov’t, tourism campaigns and the terrible self-defeating politics here. We will never realize our potential and with all the changes afoot we’ll just fall further behind.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Great post! I agree. There IS so much potential and I don’t understand why they choose not to harness it! It’s a great province and Halifax could be a world class city!
May 13th, 2009 at 11:08 am
“Our early recollections are pleasing to us because they look not on the morrow.”
Forward thinking is hard, because it puts the responsibility on the individual to act. It’s a shame there are not more incentives to reward the do-ers in society and bring more forward-thinking to the province. Unfortunately, the person making the stink over a pothole or a healthcare snafu is more likely to get all the attention, rather than the smart person with the great idea.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Amen. What gets me is Rodney’s continued claims of his so-called proven record. Perhaps my definition of “proven” is largely academic, but where the heck is the proof? To me, there seems to be more evidence that his record is broken—or at least severely scratched and unplayable. I’ve written two theses, and if I even dared to say something was “proven”, I needed to pony up the goods or be run out of the university without a second thought.
But then, maybe I could see this magic proof by wearing those fancy political spin goggles they like throwing around with the rest of their tripe.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I have a theory…ahem…my theory…ahem…
A lot of people who get into politics do so not because they see something broken and want to try and fix it, but because they like the cult. They start off as nerdy wannabes as class rep, join the debating team, then student union rep, then on to municipal, provincial and federal politics.
They like belonging to the culture. They are with like minded people…that don’t represent the average citizen in any way.
May 13th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Whoever promises to fill the most potholes generally wins!
May 13th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
There was an election in BC yesterday, I couldn’t vote just having moved here. Same party got in. I’d say the majority of people I talked with yesterday, did not vote. Seems apathy wins again.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
And lets not forget the rum (metaphoric or otherwise?!). This is a political culture that had John Hamm passing out $155 cheques (that would be one type of meta-rum) on the eve of an election, and where pork barreling is perceived as positive and necessary. So Rodo, Stevo and the other brother Daryll – sidle on up to the trough, insert those well practised snouts, and inhale deeply (apologies to all the much appreciated and more highly disciplined porcine members of the animal world) Grunt!
May 13th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
They have elections in Canada? I thought you people just ran rampant up there.
May 14th, 2009 at 12:13 am
I had no idea that N.S. and Georgia were so much alike!
May 14th, 2009 at 12:30 am
How frustrating for you! Why can’t people all just be sensible like us and elect the right people to get the job done?
May 14th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Melinda, welcome to GT and thanks. It’s too bad about the political culture here, isn’t it?
Ryan D, do you know the author of that quote. It reminds me of the people who do economic forecasting models based on teh past year or two.
Ryan, yeah, Rodney MacDonald is a bit of a mystery in that respect. He just seems to say things, whether they’re true or not.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Dale, you said it.
Allison, apathy will will the dayhere too. Last year thy just spent $9M on Democracy 250. It was a joke, just a way for insiders to have a big party for themselves. No wonder people are apathetic.
TT, Hamm get pulled up the flag pole of virtue in this province after the $155 cheque. That shows you the level of corruption when we think he’s a saint.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Beckeye, where I live they do just run rampant but they pretend to be accountable to the public. It’s quite a joke really.
Lisa, we are very isolated from the rest of the world here. And you know what that leads to….
Barbara, do you mean like us Albertans or like us, you and me. I’m sure the latter.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Hey GT, interesting post…
I define public service as work that is paid from the public purse.
As such, I have been a public servant in four jurisdictions on two continents over the last 17 years. I have worked for them all. I worked as a political staffer for an Opposition leader, then I worked as a political staffer for a prime minister who was not the Opposition leader I had worked for originally. Then I worked for the civil service under yet another government. I moved to an employer’s organisation, which was interesting… then to the labour movement (no, I’m not a gadfly, just a specialist)…. after which I again worked for a PM, but not as a staffer.
Then an Opposition party in another country hired me and after a while, the NS provincial government, otherwise known as the taxpayer, hired me to do a job for them.
I was never a journalist, but I lived with one for six years, so natch.
In that time, I have learned three huge generalizations about the people in these organizations (including myself):
1. They take different paths when they grow up, but originally, the people who populate these organizations are all the same type of nerdy dweebs who spent college hanging around the student union/ debating society etc.
2. Interestingly, politicians are the only ones that have to do a job interview in public every couple of years. (I will admit that some high profile journalists have sorta the same pressure to perform)
3. Normal people who spent college only drinking, chasing tail and studying (as opposed to doing them after demos/ sit-ins etc) couldn’t give a toss about any of these people. Not then. Not now.
I would plead, for these reasons and also because I know so many nice ones, please stop picking on the politicians … most of the traditional structures in civil society are contributing to the overwhelming sense of underwhelm that’s rampant these days!!
Keep typing giftedly!!
Queenie
May 17th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thanx queenie, interesting comment.
You might find John Ibitson’s book interesting: Why US has obama and Canada has Harper. It speaks volumes about our political systems and why we end up with the politicians we get.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:19 am
Speaking from NS. We know the rest of the country tends to look at us and our other maritime neighbours as backward, redneck, against change, what have you. What we dont like is unnecessairy change, change for the sake of change. Most of us maritimers know what the rest of Canada thinks but when it comes down to it, we’d be hard-pressed to give a rats ass.
Exclude the small portion of briefcase-toting suits who might feel like their political choices might actually influence them… and you’re left with the rest of us, who, come election time, feel as though were playing a perverbial game of Guess-who
We get up, go to work, go home… Fill the potholes between those two places, keep the beer cold, and stop building all the god damn condos….. we’ll be happy.