Canada's Scandalous Election

I was struck by the Globe and Mail photo, juxtaposing Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, during the non confidence vote in the Commons. The vote was hardly a surprise to anyone; this train had been screeching its warning whistle for days.
Martin looked his normal, weary of late, self as her conferred with colleagues sitting behind him.
Harper, sitting across the Table, seemed to have more of a ‘I hope I’m doing the right thing here,’ look about him. Gone was the boyish cockiness, replaced with boyish doubt.
I can hardly blame him. Having jumped at what he sees as a real opportunity to trounce the Liberals, on the back of the sponsorship corruption scandal, he puts everything on the line, including his leadership.
No doubt, somewhere in the back of his mind, Harper does understand the harsh realities. He has launched a negative campaign, a campaign which relies heavily on voters perceptions of public corruption. To run solely on this negative agenda he must successful isolate and smear the Liberals on questionable ethics.
The problem with that scenario is that once the mud starts flying the public have difficulty discerning the supposed ‘black hats’ from the ‘white hats’, or ‘all cats are grey in the dark’, as my old Granny was fond of saying.
To illustrate this we only need to look at the polls, which show all the major parties separated by a whisker on the issue of ethical perceptions. Stephen, if you belittle one group of politicians, you belittle them all. That is the reality of public perception.
On the other side of the coin, there is an issue supporting Harper, another perception; the public are ready for change. Martin’s perpetual look of weariness, of late, suggests a party which is tired. I’m not convinced that is the case, but it’s easy to see why it might be a common conclusion.
Evidence against that argument is the masterful way the Government has led the opposition by the nose over the past months. An election was inevitable, and for the Liberals, almost better that it is forced at this time of the year.
Far better for Martin’s team to defend themselves against this premature dismissal then to defend calling an election, early next year, on the basis of the corruption argument.
Martin, on the face of it, has been handed the right to proceed with his statesmanlike, ‘more on sorrow than anger’ approach.
There is one certainty in all of this; a week is a long time in politics, eight weeks is an eternity. I expect Martin’s team will goad Harper to keep firing wildly during this early part of the campaign. They will be looking for him to exhaust his ammunition and bore the country with his corruption arguments. After that we will all be looking to see if the Conservative actually have any positive policies.

Independent oversight
The lamentable aspect of politicizing corruption is that while it resolves nothing, it drives the public to deeper cynicism and weariness on the subject. All the bluster of ‘getting to the bottom of the scandal’, is just that in the end, as long as politicians interfere and disrupt the judicial processes.
The only way of minimizing the temptation towards corrupt activities is to have powerful, independent anti-corruption agencies. Typically these bodies have the power to initiate investigations and force testimony. They act right up to the stage of recommending prosecution and providing gathered evidence to support it.
Agencies in other countries have shown an ability to go beyond partisan interests and focus purely on unethical and illegal behaviour whenever it surfaces.
The great benefit is that the issue of corruption and scandal is largely taken out of the political arena. It cannot be hindered by political interference; it cannot be employed as a political weapon.
Certainly corruption will always accompany opportunity, but an independent watchdog has the ability to react to the slightest whiff of malfeasance throughout the public sector. Indeed, the best of these agencies are empowered to investigate high level crime of all types, particularly where the public and private sectors interface.
The current scandal would have been uncovered and stopped years ago with the proper mechanisms in place. Then we might be fighting an election over real policy, not the pissing competition we are going to subjected to now.