Trust is an essential component of a democratic society.
We elect people to represent us, to act in our best interest and if we cannot trust our politicians to understand basic ethics, to treat each other with the respect and dignity we should afford all human beings no matter their race, colour, gender, sexuality or political stripes, how can we allow them to continue acting in our interests?
Political headlines across the country these last few weeks are enough to cause just about anyone to question our political system, our electoral process, the very people who won us over and won our votes.
Whether it's watching the feds sling mud at each other and ridiculous accusations about the “robocall” scandal, the PCs of Alberta calling for a breakfast boycott after the president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association spoke out against their budget or our own MLA, Genia Leskiw, scrambling to explain the role of a committee that hasn't met in three years but still earns its members $1,000 a month, the state of Canadian politics has never seemed this dirty, petty or incomprehensible.
In the past year, the phrase, “playing nicely in the sandbox” has been thrown around pretty widely when it comes to provincial and municipal politics and the analogy has never seemed more relevant.
Teachers frequently have to remind students to share, to take what they've earned and nothing more and above all, to play fair, whether it be in the sandbox, the playground or the classroom. Maybe someone should send a few teachers to the Legislature or Parliament Hill to make sure politicians remember those early lessons.
A little bit of common human decency isn't too much to expect. After all, we pay our politicians enough and, sometimes, they don't even have to show up.
