Why I hate politics

Today there is an article in the Globe about Michael Burns and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. It looks like Michael Burns was appointed as chair of AECL for purely partisan reasons, and in a similar fashion to Michael Brown of FEMA fame, was probably not the most appropriate choice for this position.

No political party that has been in power in Canada has not committed this error to one degree or another. The question I ask, is why are there so often people appointed to important positions in government that are not qualified to be there, and what can we do about it.

Why - During an election, those wishing to get elected have to build a team of volunteers and staff to run the campaign. The politicians are truly in the hands of those working on your campaign, and so you have to trust those in important campaign positions. If the politician is elected and forms government, they are now in the hands of the public service. The politicians rely on the public service to get the things done that they were elected to do. So what do the politicians do? They get rid of the people the people they don't trust, and hire the people that helped them win, people they already trust.

So what is the outcome? Every time we change governments, we end up with a bunch of people in key positions that are really not qualified to be in those positions. While these people may be great people, they are put in over their heads until they can learn how to fill the role properly. As citizens we like to ignore this learning processes unless it is a key position that really needs to have a qualified person, such as Chair of the Bank of Canada, or Chair of AECL.

So what do we do about it? I'm not sure there is much we can do about, outside of getting involved. This is what I have done. I'm not willing to let some dough heads make the important decisions for our riding. I am supporting a party I believe has the right values, and will do everything within my capability to make sure they don't commit the same patronage mistakes that seem to plague our governmental system.

If anyone has a better idea on how to fix the system, please let me know.