From: labach@acs.ucalgary.ca (Terence Michael Labach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada
Subject: Re: Rae's "corruption"? (was Re: NDP "communism?")
Date: 27 Jan 93 17:31:11 GMT
	<1993Jan22.172701.7579@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA>
	<1993Jan23.152938.6028@athena.mit.edu>
Organization: The Bobby Jurasin Fan Club
Originator: labach@acs5.acs.ucalgary.ca

In article <1993Jan23.152938.6028@athena.mit.edu> cmk@athena.mit.edu
(Charles M Kozierok) writes: 
> In article <1993Jan22.172701.7579@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA>
> bross@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA (Brian Ross) writes: 
> >labach@acs.ucalgary.ca (Terence Michael Labach) writes:
> >: This does not excuse incompetence in government.  Only serious
> >: candidates, even in apparently hopeless seats, ought to be selected.
> >: But this did not happen, and resulted in the mess Rae has now.  It is
> >: not the slick politicians but the ordinary Canadians you are complaining
> >: about.  One wonders if the armchair politicians of the net could do
> >: better.
> >
> >Yeah, right. A Tory or Grit makes a mistake, and they're slick evil
> > politicians. 
> >An NDPer makes a mistake, and it's simply the result of the human
> >frailty of an innocent,  ordinary human being.
> 
> exactly. why the hell is the NDP running these people then? and why
> are people voting for them?

Question for you: have you run at the provincial or federal level for
elected office?

Consider that doing so requires:

	campaigning for nomination
	pre-election meetings and voter canvassing
	4-8 week election campaign involving >100 hour work weeks
	loss of salary (perhaps even job) during much of the above
	assuming additional expenses not covered by party or constituency

Now, suppose you have a comfortable job and lifestyle and a candidate
search committee comes to you, offering the above "benefits" to run in a
constituency where the odds AGAINST you winning are 1000 to 1.  Most
people (I suspect you among them) would turn down this opportunity.

So parties (ALL parties, not just the NDP) find sacrificial lambs to run
in such ridings because the "professional" politicians go someplace
where they think that they can win.  You don't see Jean Chretien
dropping star candidates into Baie-Comeau, do you?  Ironically, the
people elected 'by accident' in these ridings are more like the
'ordinary Canadians' that are so loved by posters here in the abstract,
but apparently not in the flesh.

No party wants to do this - each would prefer that every single
candidate be perfect, but that is unlikely to happen.  I would NEVER
argue that our current electoral system is the best available, but
candidates and parties do have constraints placed on them by it that
they must work within if they are to be elected.  Whining about it, with
the expectation that some magic wand exists that can cure it, is the
result of pure fantasy.

I'm amazed of the virulence of attacks on the Canadian political system
that come from those who obviously know nothing of what it entails.

Second question for you: how would you, as a representative of a party
(any party) ensure that all the candidates were serious and responsible,
even in ridings unlikely to elect you candidate?  (If you answer this,
send it to Mulroney - with ANOTHER of his MPs being convicted of fraud
this week, he needs it most of all)

- terry -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Today I make a committment to the premier, to this legislative
 assembly, and to the people of Alberta that while I am solicitor
 general or any other minister of the Crown I will refrain from the use
 of alcohol.  I apologize for any concern or doubt as to my sincerity or
 ability to serve my province."
 - Vigilante, vandal, and drunkard Tory Steve West 
   speaking in the Alberta Legislature, March 20, 1992.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada