Honesty and Politics: An Odd Mixture

When Winston Churchill first became Prime Minister at the beginning of the Second World War, he did a strange thing. He was honest with the British public, stating he had nothing to offer in the short term but "blood, sweat, toil and tears." The effect galvanized Britons as they united to face a sworn and vicious enemy.

Those words are one of the few examples I have come across of politicians speaking honestly to their electorates. Another would be Abraham Lincoln's stirring phrase, "A nation divided against itself cannot stand."* In both cases no rosy promises are made, and no references made to how wonderful life will be if I am elected.

Such statements are extremely rare, so imagine my surprise when just such a statement was uttered during the course of the present provincial election in Ontario. The Liberal and the NDP stress the Frank Capra approach, telling all and sundry that it is, or will be, a wonderful life if my party is elected, with no tax raises and lots and lots of heart-warming programs.

How all this would be paid for is skipped over very quickly, and the whole approach is about as far from honesty as you can get.

Enter the Tories, promoting the view that the province is in real fiscal trouble, and must cut back drastically in order to have any hope at all of future job creation. Moreover, the view zeroed in on the public service sector, where job creation abounds, but is accompanied by negative fiscal impact that the province can no longer afford. Tim Hudak, the Tory leader, indicated that a figure of 100,000 public service positions may disappear, and there is talk of privatization in some areas.

What is interesting is the reaction of the head of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Warren Thomas, who stated, "I don't really like it, but at least he's honest in saying he's going to do it."

It would appear, then, that Mr. Thomas is at least dimly aware that without some severe action in the public service sector, Ontario could be heading towards a Grecian fate. Whether the honesty behind this approach will be received by the electorate positively or negatively remains to be seen.

At this point I remembered a scene from the BBC Series "Yes, Minister" that argues for caution. It goes as follows:

Sir Humphrey: "That's a wonderful proposal, Minister. Very bold. But......"

The Minister: "But...?"

Sir Humphrey: "It's way too early for the truth."

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* If the present divide in the United States between the Democrats and the Republican widens much further, Lincoln's words may come back to haunt an entire nation. -- LSS.