Canadians seem to take quiet pleasure in the political goings-on south of the border.
You might say we are quietly smug.
This is particularly true for the majority of Canadians who aren’t tainted by politics.
Our American cousins aren’t offended by our smugness. Heck, they barely notice us.
For their part, Americans seem to enjoy the daily reality show streaming from the White House, Congress and the Presidential nomination trail. It’s must watch stuff.
Who would have guessed that electing a reality television star to the Oval Office would generate an endless stream of tweets assailing the made-up character of cartoonish politicians?
Even more entertaining is the daily commentary from political experts who dissect every tweet, sorting through the entrails to find hidden meaning.
I suspect the Trump White House reality show confuses many Canadians. The season-long episodes wherein the President faced the horrors of impeachment were particularly baffling given that Trump was never in any danger of being removed from office.
American political drama is kinda like British humour — sometimes you have to be in the culture to get the joke.
But it isn’t the tawdry nature of American politics that spawns a feeling of superiority in Canadian social circles.
It’s the way Americans nominate their candidates for president that inspires Canadian cheekiness. Heck, if Canada had a population of 300 million people, we would certainly find a better cadre of leadership aspirants.
Trump pounded and belittled 16 other contenders to win the Republican nomination four years ago. The smart folks said he couldn’t win the presidency, but they didn’t factor in the Democrats nominating the one candidate Trump could beat — Hillary Clinton.
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Four years later, the Democrats seem determined to reelect Trump. Their long, confusing path to the nomination convention puts proof to the Will Rogers observation that he wasn’t a member of any organized political party — he was a Democrat.
American politics are sometimes comical, often entertaining and always messy. We the north are vastly superior, unless you consider a small issue — hardly anyone participates in our political process.
At this very moment, unbeknownst to the media, the Ontario Liberal Party is conducting a leadership race. The combatants in this contest are unrecognizable to anyone outside of their immediate families.
But, at some future date, a tiny sub-fraction of the Ontario electorate will bestow the leadership crown on one of the candidates. We may be notified of the result by tweet. No one will notice.
The same is true of the ongoing contest to find a leader for the Conservative Party of Canada (a race made a little less interesting this week when my friend John Baird declined to toss his hat in the ring).
The next CPC leader has a pretty good shot at being our next prime minister, but only a small fraction of Canadian voters will participate in selecting that leader.
Why? Because most Canadians don’t care.
Whenever I go to a political event, I make a point to thank the folks who get off the couch and try to make their party better. There aren’t many of them and they matter.
I have less time, and fewer kind words, for the legions of people who are doing well and have firm opinions on policy, but who decline to stoop so low as to join a political party.
It would be impolite to ask the politically un-soiled to shut up, but perhaps they could be just a little less smug.