Why do leaders who are elected , secure in their position , lie? Is there a peculiar gene present among secure leaders which makes them act so irresponsibly?
Two current Canadian examples come to mind .
Watching TV in British Columbia these days you will see political ads by the Provincial a government touting the advantages of their various programs . One such ad states clearly ‘ the 2016 Blanced Budget. ‘ But the budget is not balanced ! The Government has to borrow this year to cover all their expenses. In an earlier post I explained this. The audacity of this Government to make such an ad is astounding. And make no mistake the leader had to approve this.
Our Princeling and his Ministers have made statements ( it’s almost as if they are still campaigning) that denigrates the former Prime Minister. Statements that really misrepresent the work of the Former PM and his Government. These statements concern the former PM ‘s activity at the UN . David Akin , Parliamentary Bureau Chief of Sun Media reports:
‘At the United Nations in New York on Wednesday, Trudeau and some of the six ministers accompanying him used words like “renewal”, “re-engage”, and “re-vitalize” to describe their government’s approach to the international organization.’
In other words the former government could have done little at the UN in order for words like renewal , re-engage , and re-vitalize to be used.
But as Aiken reports:
‘ Under Harper, Canada was the second biggest donor to the U.N.’s World Food Aid program, for example.
At the one G8 summit hosted in Canada on his watch, Harper leveraged a few billion in Canadian donations into billions from the world to improve maternal and child health in developing countries, an initiative that continues to prevent hundreds of thousands of needless deaths each year.
One of MacKay’s successors as foreign minister, John Baird, led the fight at the U.N. to get the organization to take a stand on forced, early and child marriages.
And Rona Ambrose, when she was minister for the status of women, led the establishment of the U.N.’s first-ever international day of the girl.
Moreover, no prime minister in Canadian history spoke more often at the annual leaders’s week during the United Nations General Assembly than Harper. Not Chrétien. Not Mulroney. Not any of them.’
So , here are two Canadian leaders , one the Prime Minister of our country, another the Premier of the third largest Province in the country , making public statements which are blatantly untrue .
When we beat our chest again , bragging about how wonderful we are , some reflection on the behaviour of our leaders and making them more accountable would seem in order, don’t you think?
peckford42 