“I want to tell you how sorry I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks.”
That was Britain’s Prime Boris Johnson, announcing his resignation as Conservative party leader last Thursday. A new leader and PM will take over in the fall.
Johnson finally threw in the towel after months of scandals, caucus uprisings, cabinet resignations, and unrelenting demands for his head in the media. Spelling blood, the “splash editors” of Fleet Street, who feast on violent crime, human tragedy and political upheaval, outdid themselves with their front pages on Wednesday. Here are a few:
“Can even Boris the Greased Piglet wriggle out of this?” – Daily Mail
“Going! Going! Gone?” – The Metro
“Last Chance Saloon: Boris knifed on day from hell.” – The Sun
“FINALLY” – Daily Mirror
“CURTAINS FOR BOZO” – Daily Star
Obviously, no political party in its right senses sets out to choose a “greased piglet” called Boris, or an unhinged narcissist like Donald Trump, or an unscrupulous faux-populist such as Pierre Poilievre, leading the Conservative leadership race here.
These three can be seen as aberrations engendered by dysfunctional political parties. If they aren’t, if they speak to the future of their nations, democracy in peril.
Canada is as vulnerable as any country. Over the past half-century, Canadian parties have not made much effort to strengthen their DNA by attracting outside talent, but they have been moderately proficient at finding leadership lumber within their own ranks.
The most essential qualities in a party leader are integrity and honesty, epitomized in his day by “Saint Tommy” Douglas, premier of Saskatchewan, national leader of the NDP, father of medicare. After integrity and honesty, qualities that should be high on any party’s checklist are intellect, experience, judgment, respect among peers and empathy (although Stephen Harper, like Margaret Thatcher, managed pretty well without the last one).
Let’s pencil in likeability. Random voters – voters who are not wedded to a particular party or locked in to certain social or economic causes – are the loose fish of the electoral system. There are millions of them. They will vote for a party if they like its leader, and not if he or she turns them off.
I have a personal litmus test. Would I invite this politician to my home for dinner? If my answer is Yes, I might well vote for their party. Out of curiosity, I invited several friends to apply the dinner-invitation test to a selection of political leaders past and present. They were to ignore political affiliation, policies and record of success or failure. Would they invite them home for dinner?
Starting with prime ministers, our conclusions were remarkably similar.
YES: John A. Macdonald, Wilfrid Laurier, Lester Pearson, John Turner and Jean Chrétien (all different, each interesting).
MAYBE: John Diefenbaker, Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney (they might suck the air out of the dining room).
NO: Mackenzie King (weird), Kim Campbell (too brief to register) and Stephen Harper (various reasons: arrogant; aloof; no interest in real people’s real concerns).
How about provincial premiers?
YES: Richard Hatfield, Bill Davis, René Lévesque, Allan Blakeney, Peter Lougheed and Dave Barrett (a fascinating crop of contemporaries), followed later by Bob Rae, Rachel Notley and Kathleen Wynne (three lefties who did it their way).
MAYBE: Doug Ford (got to figure this cat out).
NO: Mike Harris (wrong leader, anytime) and Jason Kenney (bad joke on Albertans).
In sum, a mixed bag in Canada, but no greased piglets among them.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens is an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. He welcomes comments at geoffstevens40@gmail.com