Leader or Representative?
When I finished my first comment on this thread over at marnanel's, I had to take a shower.*
It turns out that this was a good response, because I had a shower moment (does anyone else, other than sabotabby have Useful Moments of Political Insight in the shower?). I was shampooing my hair, and thinking about how embarrassed I am by Mr. Harper's comportment in Bali, and I thought something like "He's not being a very good representative of the Canadian people at all!"
Then, BAM! It hit me. I rinsed my hair, and thought some words.
Mr. Harper appears to see himself as the Leader of Canada.
There is a profound ideological difference between acting as the representative of a group of people and acting as the leader of a group of people. Across the border, there's a lot more rhetoric of leadership surrounding the presidency. In Canada, we've weirdly conflated the idea of representation and that of leadership: the Prime Minister is the leader of the party that makes up the Government, but is also Member of Parliament and the representative of a group of people. I see Mr. Harper, and Mr. Martin before him, as a representative of Canada, and of Canadians, on the international stage, rather than as a leader, whose vision I follow.
I think conflating the ideas of leadership and representation is problematic at best and dangerous at worst.
Thoughts? Data points? Is my Great Shower Insight totally basic and unsophisticated? Is it worth treating as a hypothesis, and examining current and historical events to see whether they support it?
* If you read that thread, be sure to bring an antidote for stupid. marnanel is not stupid at all (quite the contrary!), but her LJ seems to have been infested with mature specimen of the troll sub-species Orcinus Stultissimus Patrioticis. When they bite, you can find yourself speaking in monosyllables for up to a week if you haven't been properly innoculated.
It turns out that this was a good response, because I had a shower moment (does anyone else, other than sabotabby have Useful Moments of Political Insight in the shower?). I was shampooing my hair, and thinking about how embarrassed I am by Mr. Harper's comportment in Bali, and I thought something like "He's not being a very good representative of the Canadian people at all!"
Then, BAM! It hit me. I rinsed my hair, and thought some words.
Mr. Harper appears to see himself as the Leader of Canada.
There is a profound ideological difference between acting as the representative of a group of people and acting as the leader of a group of people. Across the border, there's a lot more rhetoric of leadership surrounding the presidency. In Canada, we've weirdly conflated the idea of representation and that of leadership: the Prime Minister is the leader of the party that makes up the Government, but is also Member of Parliament and the representative of a group of people. I see Mr. Harper, and Mr. Martin before him, as a representative of Canada, and of Canadians, on the international stage, rather than as a leader, whose vision I follow.
I think conflating the ideas of leadership and representation is problematic at best and dangerous at worst.
Thoughts? Data points? Is my Great Shower Insight totally basic and unsophisticated? Is it worth treating as a hypothesis, and examining current and historical events to see whether they support it?
* If you read that thread, be sure to bring an antidote for stupid. marnanel is not stupid at all (quite the contrary!), but her LJ seems to have been infested with mature specimen of the troll sub-species Orcinus Stultissimus Patrioticis. When they bite, you can find yourself speaking in monosyllables for up to a week if you haven't been properly innoculated.