Once In Power – Above The Law (#22)

The recent spate of wrong doings in the Canadian Senate by the three Conservative Senators with the alleged fudging of expense claims, has incredibly and inexorably lead upwards all the way to the Prime Minister’s office. 

It’s all the more tragic that such low brow abuse of power should be in Canada, a country which over its history has earned a reputation internationally as being generally honest, ethical, steeped in the fairer values of humankind, of race tolerance, classless structure, good governance, and above all a high degree of accountability to its people, in a World awash in unaccountable governance.

Additionally, in a Country that is consistently ranked as one of the highest in standard of living and quality of life, there is absolutely no excuse for privileged Canadian Senators, who are already infamous for doing inexcusably too little to earn all the compensation that they do earn, to be stooping to such dross behaviour.

On top of that, the Prime Minister, rather than take the avowed stand, and I paraphrase, ‘no tolerance of wrong doing in my government’, which was stated  with studious sincerity, prior to election of course, has not only tolerated the alleged wrongdoings for an inordinate amount of time, but continued to support the wrong doers till the bitter end. The end coming with the extraordinary action of his chief of staff writing a $90,000 cheque to bail out one of the obvious favourite Senators, who could not or would not, reimburse the people of Canada the $90,000 wrongfully claimed expenses.

On the other hand, this is probably not the end but the beginning of the eventual end that surely must come when such behaviour becomes even plausible in a country such as Canada, at such high places, with such fat cats as our Senators.

It is the unfortunate reality of humankind’s history that when a people select their leaders, they bestow upon them such uncommon honour and privilege to go along with that job that those elected, or in some other manner elevated, start to believe themselves to be above the law, as it applies to the public at large, whom they had fervently and publicly sworn to serve prior to their election.

Once elevated, the ‘leaders’ fully expect the public to be ever subservient to their exalted position, entirely forgetting their many promises to the contrary. It is entirely the people’s fault, when those elected to power are treated in such a deferential manner and are given constant reinforcement of their importance and exclusivity, that eventually everyone, the electing public and the person or persons elected, appointed or in some other manner chosen, start to entirely ignore the fact that they are supposed to be the servants of the public, and are therefore accountable. 

In spite of the grandiose titles and elevated positions it is easily forgotten that these are and will always be mere human beings with all the inherent weaknesses that have afflicted all humanity since the beginning of the species, regardless of all claims of different character, religious or ideological beliefs to the contrary. Three of the greatest weaknesses being greed, ego and hubris, which when given full reign, leads to their eventual and much deserved fall, and exposes the feet of clay. 

Whether it be elected or appointed officials, or those who have wrested power through force, such as Dictators, or inherited power such as royal families, all of them can only exist and wield power as long as their people allow and tolerate it.