Ford, Kenney worse than jet- setting fools
When hundreds of Luftwaffe bombers cast a daily shadow over London during the Blitz, the Royal Family remained at Windsor Castle, just west of the epicentre, for the duration. Day after day, members of the family would visit bomb sites and victims in hospitals. Princess Elizabeth joined the volunteer service that provided care for the wounded. Whether you are a monarchist or not, their courage and understanding of the essential nature of their role at a time of national crisis is close to the gold standard of public service.
In today’s crisis, some of our political leaders thought they should be on a Caribbean beach, instead of building morale and confidence as the COVID bombs drop more and more frequently across the country. The outrage at their stupidity and hypocrisy is well- earned, and will leave lasting scars on personal and political party brands. As someone who has advised political leaders for much of my career, my question is: What were these fools thinking?
This has been as testing a year on the social solidarity of Canadians as any in our history. We are fed up with the excuses, prevarications and unbelievable explanations for the failures in testing — and now, vaccinating — Canadians. The trust most leaders generated early in the pandemic now hangs by a thread. Canadians have been willing to endure all the sacrifices, because we believed that the rich, the powerful and the elites would not get to jump any queues, get any special treatment or be allowed to cheerfully violate onerous rules.
As the past two weeks have revealed, that faith sat on a shaky foundation of concealment, hypocrisy and lies by too many politicians and staffers of every party. Some even whined that they thought they were entitled to cheat because they had “worked so hard all year.” Really? Worked harder than an ICU nurse who has been pulling 12hour shifts for nearly a year? Staggering.
Unforgivably, these selfish fools have undermined Canadians’ willingness to abide by tough pandemic rules.
Political irony is alive and well in Canada once again.
Was it the so- called “Laurentian elites,” or Liberals who too often grant themselves “exceptional” status as a reason for doing something dumb? Yes, they were offenders, but the first prize in offensive political behaviour is shared by Canada’s two most powerful “defenders of the little guy” populist politicians: Doug Ford and Jason Kenney.
Each took a serious blunder and then made it worse. In their public performance they behaved with the arrogance and insensitivity that each built their career on attacking in others.
Ford expressed outrage at his finance minister’s St. Barts lollapalooza of a holiday — three weeks on one of the world’s most expensive resort islands, while his province was being locked down. His rage was less convincing when he admitted he had known where Rod Phillips was for two weeks, but had not chosen to tell Ontarians or fire
Phillips until the story broke.
Kenney’s transgression was worse by far. First, he claimed he did not know his chief of staff, Jamie Huckabay, was in the U. K. for a holiday over Christmas, then three days later, Kenney fired him. That he did not know of his chief’s holiday was clearly a whopper.
This week, Kenney changed his story again. He said he was told of Huckabay’s trip when his chief was on the way to the airport. He admitted he did not order him to return. Why? He still refuses to release the names of his MLAs who have yet to admit that they, too, were members of the gang of fools. At least he admitted how badly he had damaged Albertans faith in their government.
More miscreants are bound to come out from hiding under their desks. They will have seriously — perhaps fatally — damaged their own careers, the brands of their party and their colleagues. That they will not face mobs of angry citizens is simply because, as Canadians, we prefer to shut people like them out of our lives, moving on to political leaders of greater integrity and less insulting hypocrisy.
Robin V. Sears is a principal at Earnscliffe