By Bonnie Hutchinson

The year of a noisy spring

Wow. What with the Canadian federal election, and up-and-down tariff wars from the United States, this spring season feels very noisy!

Seems like every day there’s a new outrage–or a new reason for either hope or despair, depending on your political leaning.

I’ve already decided I’m going to vote on one of the advance poll days, because I expect there will be long line-ups on election day.

Lots at stake in this federal election.

Who best to manage the economy? Who best to respond to attacks from our former friend and neighbour to the south?

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Lately I’ve been thinking about various political systems in our world. Democracies–when citizens vote on who will govern them. Oligarchies–when the richest and most powerful control how an area is governed. Dictatorships–when one powerful person is in control. In the olden days, there were monarchies–when countries were ruled by descendants of a previous monarch.

Each system has its strengths and limitations.
I prefer democracy. That might be only because I’ve been programmed to believe it is superior.

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Lately I’ve been thinking about a flaw of democracy. I don’t know how to resolve this flaw.

In order to win an election, you need skills and characteristics that make you the most popular and appealing candidate for the most voters.

In order to be good at doing the job–being an elected member of parliament, legislature or municipality–you ought to be good at making decisions that are best for the people you are elected to serve.

That means in a democracy, the skills you need to get the job are not the same as the skills you need to do the job. Could be a problem.

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Many decades ago, in my brief but intense time as an elected member of a school board, I learned something else about being part of an elected body. To be effective, it’s useful to be good at convincing other elected members about what you believe is in the best interest of the people you serve.

At my very first board meeting, I made a blundering tactical error. I unintentionally antagonized the board chair. From that point on, if ideas came from me, they would be defeated because other board members didn’t want to offend the board chair. I gradually learned to work behind the scenes with other board members, so they would put forward ideas that I believed would best serve the schools and the community.

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Lately I’ve remembered something else. In 1976, it was the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States. In 1776, 13 colonies decided to band together as the United States of America–the world’s first official democracy. They defined democracy as “government by the people for the people.”

During 1976, the 200th anniversary, someone asked Chinese leaders what they thought about this experiment in democracy. The Chinese leaders said, in essence, “It’s too soon to tell.”

With several thousand years of various forms of governance (mostly in the dictatorship terrain), I suppose Chinese leaders were in a position to comment!

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So–democracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, even monarchy–all have strengths and limitations.

One last thing. I have been told that in South Africa, people who intend to run for election must take courses. They learn what they should know in order to serve as an elected person. That seems like a good idea, no matter what form of governance is in effect!

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