Meanness, lies and conspiracy theories: Boys State and the state of politics - Anglican Journal | Canada News Media
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Meanness, lies and conspiracy theories: Boys State and the state of politics – Anglican Journal

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“Especially for people of faith, thoughtful participation in political processes is important because decisions about how the social order is structured, justice exercised, and the earth cared for are entrusted to elected officials in government.” Image: Apple TV+

While politics has long been a blood sport, the current political climate in Canada, the U.S., Britain, Europe and beyond seems unusually volatile and unpredictable. At the convention of the Democratic Party—a “virtual” online event this summer—former U.S. President Barack Obama summarized why many are cynical about politics: “I understand why … a young person might look at politics right now … the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and think, ‘What’s the point?’”

For insights into the U.S. political process, take a look at the documentary film Boys State, currently streamed through Apple TV+. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. documentary films at the 2020 Sundance Festival, Boys State tells the story of the 2018 Texas Boys State Convention, where a thousand 17-year-old boys gathered in Austin, Texas, for a weeklong modelling of the American political system. Sponsored by the American Legion, the Boys State Conventions began in 1935 and are held annually in every U.S. state except Hawaii. There is also a Girls State Convention and a national Boys Nation. Famous alumni include Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Cory Booker, and non-politicians such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Jordan and Bruce Springsteen.

The Boys (and Girls) State Conventions are an exercise in mock government. Participants are split into political parties—the “Nationalists” and the “Federalists”—and go through the processes that constitute the political system: electing party chairs, development of a platform, “primaries” to choose a slate of candidates and finally an election to offices, including the highest position of governor.

All of this takes place in the context of a youth gathering, a carnival-like atmosphere complete with marching bands. Very quickly the two parties establish a group consciousness and, before long, are battling each other in a contest not only of ideas but of personalities.

Most everything that happens in the current political climate occurs at Boys State: there are hot-button issues, procedural detours, impeachment proceedings, power struggles, meanness and lies and crazy conspiracy theories. Cleverly, directors Amanda McBane and Jesse Moss focus on three of the participants, giving viewers an inside view of their personal stories. You meet and get to know Steven Garza, one of the candidates for governor, and two of the party chairs, René Otero and Ben Feinstein.

A Texan of Mexican ancestry, Garza is a straightforward and honest guy; his oratory is compelling. Feinstein’s a good spin man; he’s a conservative who happens to be a double amputee. Otero is an African American, originally from Chicago, who confides that he’s “never seen so many white folks before!” Other boys profiled include Robert MacDougall, a charismatic candidate for governor who admits that while he is personally pro-choice, he takes hard-line anti-abortion stance in public. “I’m playing this like a game,” he says. “Sometimes you can’t win on what you believe in your heart…. It’s a morally questionable thing to lie in politics. It gave me a new appreciation for why politicians lie to get in office.”

Lying to get into office, taking politically expedient positions to gain acceptance and undercutting adversaries has become the day-to-day stuff of politics in the 21st century. While Canadian viewers may well be shocked by how issues of guns and reproductive choice dominate the debates in Boys State, all viewers will see demonstrated through this simulation of the American political process how the obsession with winning elections overshadows deeper issues of leadership, integrity and honesty.

Only Stephen Garza seems to combine personal integrity with his ambitions; it is gratifying to see, as the film closes, that he has continued in his political aspirations since the conclusion of the Boys Town Convention. One hopes for leaders who are able to rise above the cut and thrust of politics to articulate a vision of a better world characterized by greater compassion.

For in democracies elections matter. People’s choices matter. Leadership matters. Increasingly though, media portray the political process more like a sport with winners and losers. When the substance of the debate is lost in the sad spectacle of a blood sport, we’re left only with meanness and lies. Democracy requires more. One hopes that political simulations, like those Boys State demonstrates, might give students an experience of thoughtful engagement rather than rewarding lying and cheating because—not to overstate it—the survival of human life on the planet is at stake.

Especially for people of faith, thoughtful participation in political processes is important because decisions about how the social order is structured, justice exercised, and the earth cared for are entrusted to elected officials in government.  The values and character of those elected should matter deeply to people of faith because from their decisions flow so many aspects that affect our common life. Churches can take a non-partisan role in promoting active participation in the political process, raising issues that parishioners can ask political candidates, and encouraging children and young people to be informed and involved because in doing so, they are taking an important part in caring for God’s world.

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Here is the latest on the New Brunswick election

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The New Brunswick Liberal Party has won a majority government, and Susan Holt will become the first woman to lead the province.

Here’s the latest from election night. All times are ADT.

10:15 p.m.

The results of the New Brunswick election are in, and with virtually all of the ballots counted, the Liberals won 31 seats out of 49.

The Progressive Conservatives won 16 seats.

The Green Party won two.

Voter turnout was about 66 per cent.

10 p.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has congratulated New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt for her party’s victory in the provincial election.

Trudeau says on the X platform he’s looking forward to working with Holt to build more homes, protect the country’s two official languages, and improve health care.

9:48 p.m.

During her victory speech tonight in Fredericton, New Brunswick premier-designate Susan Holt thanked all the women who came before her.

Holt will become the first woman to lead the province after her party won a majority government in the New Brunswick election.

The Liberals are elected or leading in 31 of 49 ridings.

9:30 p.m.

Blaine Higgs says he will begin a transition to replace him as leader of the Progressive Conservatives.

After being in power for six years, the Tories lost the election to the Liberals.

Higgs, who lost his seat of Quispamsis, says, “My leadership days are over.”

9:17 p.m.

The Canadian Press is projecting that Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick since 2016, has lost in the riding of Quispamsis.

Higgs, 70, has been premier of New Brunswick since 2018, and was first elected to the legislature in 2010.

8:45 p.m.

When asked about the election results, Progressive Conservative chief of staff Paul D’Astous says that over the last 18 months the party has had to contend with a number of caucus members who disagreed with its policy.

D’Astous says the Tories have also had to own what happened over the last six years, since they came to power in 2018, adding that the voters have spoken.

8:39 p.m.

The Canadian Press is projecting that David Coon, leader of the New Brunswick Green Party, has won the riding of Fredericton Lincoln.

Coon, 67, has been leader of the party since 2014, the year he was first elected to the legislature.

8:36 p.m.

The Canadian Press is projecting that the New Brunswick Liberal Party has won a majority government in the provincial election.

Party leader Susan Holt will become the first woman premier in the province’s history.

8:20 p.m.

Early returns show a number of close races across the province, with the Liberals off to an early lead.

Liberal campaign manager Katie Davey says the results will show whether party leader Susan Holt, a relative newcomer, was able to capture the attention and trust of the people of New Brunswick.

Davey says she believes voters have welcomed Holt and her message, which focused on pocketbook issues, especially health care.

8 p.m.

Polls have closed.

Eyes will be on a number of key ridings including Fredericton South-Silverwood, where Liberal Leader Susan Holt is vying for a seat; Saint John Harbour, which has been competitive between the Tories and Liberals in recent elections; and Moncton East, a redrawn Tory-held riding that the Liberals have targeted.

At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three, there was one Independent and there were four vacancies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

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A look at Susan Holt, Liberal premier-designate of New Brunswick

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FREDERICTON – A look at Susan Holt, premier-designate and leader of the New Brunswick Liberal party.

Born: April 22, 1977.

Early years: Raised in Fredericton, she attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and then spent a year in Toronto before moving abroad for three years, spending time in Australia and India.

Education: Earned a bachelor of arts in economics and a bachelor of science in chemistry from Queen’s University.

Family: Lives in Fredericton with her husband, Jon Holt, and three young daughters.

Hobbies: Running, visiting the farmers market in Fredericton with her family every Saturday.

Before politics: CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, CEO of the New Brunswick Business Council, civil servant, business lobbyist, advocate, consultant and executive with an IT service company that trains and employs Indigenous people.

Politics: Worked as an adviser to former Liberal premier Brian Gallant. Won the leadership of the provincial Liberal party in August 2022 and was elected to the legislature in an April 2023 byelection.

Quote: “We don’t take it lightly that you have put your trust in myself and my team, and you have hope for a brighter future. But that hope I know is short-lived and it will be on us to deliver authentically, on the ground, and openly and transparently.” — Susan Holt, in her speech to supporters in Fredericton after the Liberals won a majority government on Oct. 21, 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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New Brunswick Liberals win majority, Susan Holt first woman to lead province

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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick voters have elected a Liberal majority government, tossing out the incumbent Progressive Conservatives after six years in power and handing the reins to the first woman ever to lead the province.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt is a relative newcomer to the province’s political scene, having won a byelection last year, eight months after she became the first woman to win the leadership of the party.

The Liberals appeared poised to take 31 of 49 seats to the Conservatives’ 16 and the Greens two.

Holt, 47, led the Liberals to victory after a 33-day campaign, thwarting Blaine Higgs’s bid to secure a third term as Tory premier.

The Liberal win marks a strong repudiation of Higgs’s pronounced shift to more socially conservative policies.

Higgs, meanwhile, lost in his riding of Quispamsis. In a speech to supporters in the riding, he confirmed that he would begin a leadership transition process.

As the Liberals secured their majority, Green Party Leader David Coon thanked his supporters and pledged to continue building the party, but he then turned his sights on the premier. “One thing is for sure,” he told a crowd gathered at Dolan’s Pub in Fredericton, “we know that Blaine Higgs is no longer the premier of this province.”

The election race was largely focused on health care and affordability but was notable for the remarkably dissimilar campaign styles of Holt and Higgs. Holt repeatedly promised to bring a balanced approach to governing, pledging a sharp contrast to Higgs’s “one-man show taking New Brunswick to the far right.”

“We need a government that acts as a partner and not as a dictator from one office in Fredericton,” she said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

Higgs focused on the high cost of living, promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent — a pledge that will cost the province about $450 million annually.

Holt spent much of the campaign rolling out proposed fixes for a health-care system racked by a doctor shortage, overcrowded emergency rooms and long wait-times. A former business advocate and public servant, she promised to open 30 community health clinics across the province by 2028; remove the provincial sales tax from electricity bills; overhaul mental health services; and impose a three per cent cap on rent increases by 2025.

The 70-year-old Tory leader, a mechanical engineer and former Irving Oil executive, led a low-key campaign, during which he didn’t have any scheduled public events on at least 10 days — and was absent from the second leaders debate on Oct. 9.

Holt missed only two days of campaigning and submitted a 30-page platform with 100 promises, a far heftier document than the Tories’ two-page platform that includes 11 pledges.

When the election was called on Sept. 19, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Green Party had three, there was one Independent and four vacancies. At least 25 seats are needed for a majority.

Higgs was hoping to become the first New Brunswick premier to win three consecutive elections since Liberal Frank McKenna won his third straight majority in 1995. But it was clear from the start that Higgs would have to overcome some big obstacles.

On the first day of the campaign, a national survey showed he had the lowest approval rating of any premier in the country. That same morning, Higgs openly mused about how he was perceived by the public, suggesting people had the wrong idea about who he really is.

“I really wish that people could know me outside of politics,” he said, adding that a sunnier disposition might increase his popularity. “I don’t know whether I’ve got to do comedy hour or I’ve got to smile more.”

Still, Higgs had plenty to boast about, including six consecutive balanced budgets, a significant reduction in the province’s debt, income tax cuts and a booming population.

Higgs’s party was elected to govern in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in almost 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — marking the first province to go to the polls during the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a slim majority.

Since then, 14 Tory caucus members have stepped down after clashing with the premier, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on conservative policies that represented a hard shift to the right.

A caucus revolt erupted last year after Higgs announced changes to the gender identity policy in schools. When several Tory lawmakers voted for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from cabinet. A bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.

Higgs has also said a Tory government would reject all new applications for supervised drug-consumption sites, renew a legal challenge against the federal carbon pricing scheme and force people into drug treatment if authorities deem they “pose a threat to themselves or others.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

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