Scandal!

Canada does not have a huge population and we are generally seen by the rest of the world as very polite. We say please and thank-you. We hold the door for you. We try are best to not rock the boat.

However, all of a sudden we seem to be up to our eyeballs in scandals.

The headline that is most prominent is Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto admitted to smoking crack cocaine. He isn't the first North American mayor to smoke crack and I doubt he will be the last. 

On the same day, the Canadian Senate has suspended three, yes the number that lies between two and four, of its own members without pay because of improperly filed expense claims. If you are reading this and you are not familiar with Canadian Parliamentary rules, Senators are appointed and may serve continuously until the age of seventy-five. It used to be for life but they changed it a while back. The Senate generally stays out of the spotlight and you can quietly go about your daily life without scrutiny. Before this the Senate had never suspended anyone without pay. This is a big leap.

In Montreal, the mayor stepped down amongst corruption allegations and soon after his appointed replacement was arrested.

In Winnipeg, there are projects that were not tendered according to the rules, a shady looking land swap deal and even a City Hall Christmas party grabbing headlines. Everyone is pointing to the mayor on that one as well.

What happened?

In my mind there are two possibilities. Either Canadian forgot how to keep their secrets or we have have developed an edge we never had.

With the absolute ease to record and share information it is a lot easier to track what people say and do. It is very hard to deny a statement or limit it's exposure. Once something is on the internet and interesting it can go viral and it becomes part of the collective consciousness, at least for a while. Secrets are not as prevalent as they used to be.

However, I think Canadians are becoming bolder. I think we are willing to take more chances for the big payoff, leaving us exposed to big failure. Our politicians may not have the public's interest at the heart of everything they do. Everyone, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, want to be seen as an outsider who is fighting the establishment. If  the Prime Minister doesn't se himself as the establishment, who is?

We need to shake the establishment from time to time. We need to hold people accountable for the responsibilities bestowed upon them. We don't need this much scandal. Too much time and effort is being put into fixing the problems and not improving the lives of Canadians.

So, to all the people in charge of anything established by the people for the people, get your house in order, right now. We don't need this. There are real problems that need to be solved and let's be honest, Canadians are better than this.