Do Canadians actually care about ethics in government?

[Bragi]

Commenter Jerry on the CTV site writes:

"It's becoming increasingly obvious that Canadians don't care about ethics in government. Hell, at this point, MacKay could have been carrying out torture on Afghan detainees himself and Canadians wouldn't care. Between Stephen Harper, a next to useless media, and the general decline in ethics because of the corporate economy, Canadians no longer have any concern for right and wrong. And the worse part of it, it's that it's older voters who continue to support Harper, younger voters see right through the Tories. Seniors only care about their own personal security now, and have lost the right to think of themselves as the 'wise elders' of the nation They have sold their grandchildren's birthright, for their own advantage."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091126/craigs_take_091126/20091126/

I do wish I had a good answer to that question. I know that, due to the ascendance of U.S-style Republicanism in Canada, we now have a divided political culture in which everyone is free to make up their own "facts".

In this context, we may have a shared "sense" of ethics, but we also have complete disagreement among the politically minded about what it means in practice to be ethical.

For example, for me, torture is always wrong. For Canadians Republicans, however, it is an acceptable practice if it is used by "good" people against "evil" people.

This being the case, both sides to the issue can marshal whatever "facts" they wish to select to buttress their views. The issue thus becomes a matter of opinion, not a matter of ethics.

Anyway, it was the slide into U.S.-style polarized debate that most bothered me when Harper first formed a government, which I recall writing about here the very day after the 2006 election.

I'm now of the view that he has already irreversibly reshaped our political culture in a profoundly divisive and bad way.


- B