Op/Ed

 It can hardly come as a surprise to anyone that governments – like corporations – employ spin to portray their actions in the best possible light (and to cast their opponents in the worst possible light). Nor is it news that many corporations – and the PR companies they employ – operate a revolving door for helpful politicians.

There is no accounting for political judgment when it gets caught up in irrational euphoria. The overwhelming victory of Justin Trudeau in the Liberal Party's leadership race demonstrates just how impoverished the state of our political culture has become. Did the polls -- almost completely meaningless at this stage of the political process -- so addle people's discernment that they could not see what was in front of them?

Once every four years citizens are offered a brief reprieve from the responsibility of endless decisions about matters concerning their kids, their homes, and their work; of just getting along and making ends meet. Once every four years we are inundated with propaganda telling us that all the problems associated with the triumvirate of economy, ecology, and society can be resolved with the stroke of a pencil. Just one X, if placed in the right spot on the ballot, will do the trick.

It's a bit rich for the B.C. Liberal party to be giving lessons to the BC NDP on political fundraising, as they tried to do over the weekend after the NDP sent a fundraising appeal to corporate Liberal party donors.

The Liberals might have been well-advised to leave well enough alone, if for no other reason than it might invite comparisons over their own track record when it comes to fundraising.