Tuesday Debate Day – The Return

Welcome back to Tuesday Debate Day! We’ve been on a bit of a sabbatical since August, but with the return of our Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in Ottawa seems like a good time for us to return too. For those who are new to this blog feature, it is a weekly forum where we will post about a political topic and open the floor for a civil discussion revolving around the issue at hand. As the writer I reserve the right to question and express view points that may not align with my personal views in order to incite further debate and discussion.

This week’s topic will also coincide with the House of Commons reconvening and centre around the concept of the Politics of Mean. What we are talking about here is the general tone in the political sphere and in particular the relationship between political parties and between parties and voters. The discourse in the world of politics, for our focus Canadian politics, often comes off as mean, ornery and sometimes downright ugly.

This can include attack ads, like one on television and the internet a few years back where one party paid for an advertisement  where a bird pooped on the leader of another party. Or a common tactic where the opposite party is conveyed in black and white with ominous music playing while a scary voice-over reads an interpretation of that party’s platform. Politics of Mean also entails the actual discourse within what should be the hallowed hall of our parliamentary democracy. Ask yourself if the behaviours of our elected officials within their workplace would be acceptable where you or your parents work. The name calling and bullying is deplorable at times. Yet another example of this is on social media where we have an example of one MP sharing the tweets of an account that published the details of an MP from another party’s divorce proceedings among other unsavoury things. These are just a few examples of how our political system has adopted and adapted to a landscape we can label the Politics of Mean.

This topic has many points we can debate and we are just going to do this week’s discussion “scramble” style by throwing out a few questions for you to comment upon, but please feel free to take this discussion in any direction you would like.

Do politics/politicians need to act this way?

Is this simply the culmination of partisan politics?

Can parties win, or even survive, in today’s political climate without slinging mud?

Are you more inclined to vote because you are against someone or something?

Would you be more likely to support a party if they played nice with others?

Do the ends justify the means? (Ha! punny)

Add your comment and join the conversation!