POLITICAL PITFALLS OR HOW I STARTED WORRYING AND LOVED THE BALLOT BOX

Hey folks!

For any burgeoning political watchers out there, this past week has been a festival of the bizarre and the pointless for some, while being of absolute concern for others. This goes the world over really and represents what a lot of people are currently having both issues and positive experiences with in their particular political system. To start in the most familiar territory, lets begin with a check on Canada’s political scene then move through the British political scene.

Alright, this is actually a story with much broader implications, but here is the central issue for those of you not following the story: In Ontario there is a Nuclear Reactor referred to as ‘Chaulk River’. Now, said reactor was built in 1945 and is regulated by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). The central importance of the reactor in this current era is that it produces a large portion of the medical isotopes used for cancer and other medical testing, both in this country and abroad.

Now, almost a year previous to now, the current Conservative government federally fired the top regulator for AECL accusing her of being partisan, while she merely wanted to shut Chaulk River down for repairs to its aging systems if not to eventually replace it altogether. However, she was canned and the Government made a big deal about averting the ‘isotope crisis’ everyone was so worried about. But, like with many things, all of this comes around in time…

For the Government has now placed itself in the situation to be forced to fix those earlier problems, as the reactor again is down and a world medical isotope shortage could easily begin. But wait, there is more! For the Government has been plotting to disgard this burden on itself by selling off and privatizing some or the entirety of AECL. How do we know this?

Well, because Lisa Raitt, the Minster in charge of the AECL file amongst other things, left her briefing book there, with sensative information to this matter… in the studios of CTV, a National Broadcaster. Now, while this is a simple enough mistake and really, not even the Minster’s own fault as those things are typically carried by aides, the established precedents by the current Prime Minster contradict conventional wisdom and state that she herself should have been held accountable for leaking these documents on potential transactions. Mr. Harper in turn then would not accept Mrs. Raitt’s resignation, Mrs. Raitt following with the protocol which the Prime Minster had himself set, and instead let own of her staffers go over the incident.

This issue flared up for awhile, but really died out over the weekend… That is until yesterday evening when, surprisingly, news came to light that a audio recording had been left at the offices of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald now for several month depicting a conversation between Mrs. Raitt and said former staffer. Now, the recording was found in a House of Commons washroom and brought to the news paper by mistake, but still… after months of contacting the staffer and telling her to come get it, the current climate of the news surrounding Mrs. Raitt was just too good for some reporter to pass up.

So, one quick court-battle over the recording later and the Chronicle-Herald was allowed to release the material. Nothing too big, the Minster thinks one of her colleagues are being shielded by her staff (her ally on this file, Health Minster Leona Aglukkaq) and that the crisis is ‘sexy’ for being related to nuclear leaks and cancer, as taking the credit would be of help to her. As well, she libels in my view Micheal Ignatief and claims he was cajoled by Canada’s top Banks not to force the government to fall back in the Winter.

Anyways, the issue is then two-fold: What really is being done, amidst all this internal and external dysfunction about an isotope shortage? And secondly, how much more can the Conservatives mismanage on the larger issues raised by the spectre of all this?

On to Mr. Gordon Brown, Prime Minster and apparently Court Jester of the British House of Commons. Now I mean the jester comment as clearly the aftermath of a duty gone ary wherein he is beaten by his masters, who in a reversal of roles are actually the other Minsters of his Cabinet it seems. Credibility ruined by a Recession combined with a very convoluted and corrupt ‘property flipping’ scandal, as well as inheriting all of Tony Blair’s faults and mistakes… Mr. Brown was essentially screwed all along. Labour was long finished before the latest round of head-spinning blows to the party, which include a Caesarian revolt of trusted ministers defecting and practically stabbing Brown until he looks like little more than ground beef.

To his credit… well, there isn’t much. Gordon Brown has been a most uninteresting figure to watch and regularly one which simply puts me to sleep when compared with say Barack Obama or even the Archvillianesque scheming of Mr. Harper. He is the classic transitionary figure from the fall of a regime to the passing on to a new breed in Westminsterian politics. In Canada, see Paul Martin as an apt example. Both men were rocked with scandals that most assuredly grew under their more well-regarded predecessor, both were less than charismatic and both ended up taking the fall after all.

Really, the problem in Britian is one that began under Blair and likely has roots even further back, so blaming Brown alone is pointless… but thinking better of him due to this reprieve is no win either. So really, British politics is suffering the collapse as the American system, intensity-wise, had at the end of Bush’s term and like the Liberals had, in terms of style, during the Martin-era.
Intitally, I was going to speak of the American issues with closing Gitmo here as well, but I think that would be better served by itself. So hold on and…

Enjoy folks,
- Brad.