A change is as good as a rest? I think Canadians would like to “put to REST” Ottawa’s shenanigans.

As some of my readers may know I’m a fan of Dr. Edward Demming the bean counter of bean counters. I first read his book “Out of the Crisis” many years ago. I took my time reading it (two years). It may be more appropriate to say I took bit sized meditations of it. Even though I was used to reading textbooks and technical stuff, Dr. Demming’s book was often dry as Sahara sand and in order to keep my baby bottom complexion I had to read some of it in the shower. However, I would encourage people to at least google Dr. Demming’s 14 points and see if you can apply them to your personal life and family, better yet, how about lets apply the concept of quality to our current political environment.
Lets look at Dr. Demming’s first point: Constancy of purpose: “Create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of products and service to society, allocating resources to provide for long range needs rather than only short term profitability, with a plan to become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs.”
These points are not just applicable to business. If a family (for instance) invests their resources (time, effort, finances etc.) in meeting long term needs rather than just short term satisfaction, true quality will immerge.
Politically, if our government seeks to meet our long term needs rather than short term “demands” our Country would also run consistently and with purpose. However, our political system too often focuses only on how to get re-elected or “obliterate opponent’s power” rather than creating consistency of purpose. This attempt at a coalition “coup d’etat” is even shorter term political thinking than the standard preschool four year old mentality we’ve been accustomed to. It’s also an act to antagonize an already polarized (yet thankfully still civilized) society. Let’s go over the “short term” facts.
In addition to the six week old election changes (moderate though they may be) and the proposed “coup d’etat” 180 degree change (now assumed scheduled for January), the current liberal leadership race will GUARENTEE another change in leadership by May/June of 2009 (provided of course the coalition even lasts that long).
IF we reach spring without another election we have to ask “Will Layton put up with the new guy? Will the BQ put up with him? Will the outrage of the Canadian society temper or fuel further multi party shenanigans? Ultimately, can our Country even afford to have our polarized views exacerbated while plunging us into chaotic obis?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our globe is plunging itself into a recession/depression obis. The already financially challenged Canadian public is forced to additionally weather our own government imposed vortex of turmoil, the most inefficient, ineffective state of being civilized society can even pretend to function at. Our Country’s SURVIVAL may actually depend on constancy of purpose. A recession, a serious recession, maybe even a depression should NEVER be entered into while we operate in a state of turmoil and uncertainty. Our dollar may well be hammered like it was during the Quebec referendum (or worse). Our allies and investors have yet another reason to pull out. What greater negative global sentiment can be fostered than by political short term shenanigans?
Historians know that government spending has NEVER been more than a moderate contributor to pulling a Country from recession/depression, and that only once its “bottomed out” not while it’s still sliding down. Even if the Liberals /NDP/Bloc got a hold of the countries check book and started spending tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars immediately (in a credit crunch environment at that) to apparently “get us out of recession”, economists know it will take a minimum of several months (at best) for anyone on the street to see a penny (assuming we reached the bottom-which of course we haven’t- because they only just announced an official recession last week). Meanwhile, we could see three different Prime Ministers before anyone even cashes a check.
At the least… at the VERY least… if the Liberals truly operated in the best interest of Canada they would, upon the concession the Conservatives axing their “…gut public subsidies of political parties…”agenda, suspend the idea of a “coup” until after their OWN Liberal leadership race was concluded. But that’s probably too much to ask of children trying to play together in a sand box.
Therefore we are left with our Country presenting itself internally and globally as unstable, unpredictable and chaotic.
Nice going Parliament! Just when we need you the most you leverage the crisis to satisfy your own thirsty selfish agendas.