As anyone who has ever voted in, or indeed lived through, a federal election should be able to tell you, Canadians do NOT elect a Prime Minister directly; we vote for local Members of Parliament. Our head of state is in fact the reigning monarch in Britain, currently Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; the Governor-General is merely the sovereign's representative.
When I first read about the results of this survey, I reacted with predictably scorn and fury. Most of us pick up a fair bit of French in passing from all the bilingual food boxes in stores; I kind of thought this basic political stuff would be similar. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize the results of this survey are not surprising in the least; nor are they particularly alarming.
Let's face it, most of us are not political junkies. In fact, the merest mention of politics activates a trapdoor in most skulls, rendering anything afterwards into raving gibberish.
Theories abound as to why that might be. Mine is quite simple: political parties have assumed many of the qualities of religious denominations, and most of us have little to no interest in being saved. We react to most politicians the same way we would to J.W.'s knocking at our doors.
Combine that with the inevitable cynicism that comes with decades of politicians ignoring us and it's not hard to see why so many people flunked this little test. (Simple example: almost nobody voted for Stephane Dion. Okay, yeah, I know it: only people in Dion's riding got to not vote for Stephane Dion. But you know what I mean. And yet he damn near became Prime Minister. The same thing is likely to happen with Ignatieff next month. When you voted, was Prime Minister Ignatieff at the forefront of your mind? Didn't think so.)
Let's look at these questions from a cynical Canadian's point of view.
1) True or false: in Canada, the Prime Minister is directly elected.
Well, let's see now. The people running for PM are the only ones I ever see on television. I vote for the least offensive one I see, so yes, we directly elect the Prime Minister.
If we were to remind this hypothetical Canadian of his local representative, he'd like as not say who dat? Never heard of him...oh, wait a second, he's the guy whose name is all over front lawns every election, and then he sends a bunch of junk mail letting us know what a fine nothing he's doing up there in Ottawa.
Us political junkies know that most MPs work their asses off, of course...and a great many of them do care passionately about their ridings and accomplish a great deal. But I suspect there's a perception that whatever happens will happen no matter who the local MP is: Quebec will get drowned in money, good-paying jobs will evaporate, and taxes will keep going up. That's life.
2) Canada's head of state is
(a) the Governor-General
(b) the Prime Minister
(c) the Queen
Really, I can forgive people getting this one wrong, not least because they forgot
(d) who gives a flying fig-fart?
I mean, how many people even know, much less care, what a head of state is or does? How exactly does a head of state influence my workaday existence? I roll out of bed, go to work, come home, eat, take a long, leisurely dump, and go to bed again without once thinking of the Queen. OR the Governor-General, for that matter. And it's not as if we're often reminded that Queen Elizabeth can yank Harper's balls if she really had a mind to. We like to think of ourselves as an independent country, you know? Like, since 1867?
(Wonder how many Canadians would get that date right.)
We've all learned over the past month that the Governor General has a buttload of power, should she choose to exercise it. Under certain circumstances, she can force (or deny) an election, for instance. Not once in all that reportage did I catch any reference to her being a mere figurehead for Her Majesty. So it's not surprising most Canadians don't know who our head of state is.
It's gratifying to see that more than half of us know Canada is a constitutional monarchy, I guess. (I'm curious: how many people got that right, but still thought our head of state was the Prime Minister?) But again, it doesn't really have much relevance to our everyday lives. That's true of politics in general, really.
Even local politics. I used to find it interesting that municipal elections always have the lowest voter turnout. I mean, c'mon, that's where stuff happens that you're gonna see: garbage pickup. Snow clearance in the winter. A new stop sign down at the end of the street where that kid was killed last summer.
As I'm getting older, I'm losing interest even in local politics. Because let's face it, the basic shit's going to get done no matter who's in power. The garbage must be collected. And if you live in Canada, the roads gotta get plowed.
It will be announced every year that property taxes are going to go up fifteen percent...then, when they go up only six percent, it'll be a fiscal miracle. Developers are going to raze those woodlands for a new big box store (Ken's New Rule: henceforth, all big box stores shall have the word "SWEATSHOP" somewhere in their names. Underlined. In neon.) A hue and cry will ensue; local politicians will pretend to listen, secretly taking big bucks under the table; the SWEATSHOP will go in as planned, maybe with a big tree in the parking lot as a nice concession to the envirogeeks. And of course, the parking lot will be packed with most of the same people who seemed dead-set against another SWEATSHOP going up in their neighbourhood.
I firmly believe that we could eliminate somewhere between half and two thirds of all politicians...and nobody'd notice a difference. With that in mind, I find it increasingly hard to rail against political ignorance.
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