The Customer Is Always Right ???

It's the maxim of  business. People who wish to succeed in business are careful not to offend a potential client.

 Politics is not the same. A politician who wants to succeed,does not go out of  the  way to offend a voter. Potentially everybody above the age of eighteen. The difference is, a voter  is not a client or a customer but a card-carrying member.

A politician must decide what should please or displease the voter.Voters come in all shapes and sizes of  priorities and passions.

So,   the answer for the politician is simple but complex ... no single answer.

"You can please some of the people some of the  time, you can't please all of the people all of the time"

Tricky eh! Not really. A politician is first and foremost  a voter; first in  election and foremost in  Council.  You have to be elected. . A candidate is  a wannabe. A politician  dumped after a single term is a  has- been and never-was.

So, what's  the difference? Understanding who you are... comfort in your skin... successfully projecting  and seeking support from like-minded voters.

It means never having to remember who you represent. They are always with you at the table. In the warp and weave of your clothing. In every strand of your hair. In every thought and every observation that presents itself.

It's being able to speak with force and conviction. Knowing you  speak not for yourself alone.

In my early years a friend, Michael McMorrow resident of Newmarket, graduate of McGill University gave me a Latin motto. I prefer it in my own language:

"Don't let the bastards grind you down" To this day, it suits me.

In respect of the north-east traffic calming  project, a woman said to me; "I don't care how much it costs as long as I get what I want"

She was a teacher. Teachers  tend to refer to professional status when presenting a view. Buses transporting children to school in her neighbourhood was a particular bug-a-boo.

It's my impression, once all-important certification is obtained,  some members of the profession never exercise their minds again. It could be said they rest on their laurels. Or  minds are in their seating arrangement; driven there by force of gravity.

Any professional nowadays could lay claim to the same distinction.Who is there  to challenge them?

Students? Patients? Clients unfamiliar with the law?  How to build a bridge?   How to remove salt from water that wasn't there in the first place?   How to calculate a fair rate for water, remotely connected to  cost , which is nothing?

In politics, since so many are on the public payroll, one meets  almost all at one time or another.It's entirely conceivable one might find oneself in conflict with one or other  or a number at the same time.

There's a  common reluctance to acknowledge politics as a profession. Even though modern universities provide degrees in the science.A student can complete a course  and obtain a degree within a council term. Do  they  learn the same?

My sister informed me once of a poll to determine status of various professions in the public's mind.I said; "Don't tell me.  Teachers  first, politicians last"

"Yes" she said, with glee. My brother-in-law was a high school teacher and a  decent man,He wasn't in the room, when my sister related how much  status he, and indirectly she, had more than I.

They were guests in my home for several days before leaving on a two month summer vacation trip to the U.K., parking a car for the duration in my driveway and  free transportation to the airport.

They didn't get free transportation from the airport on the way home.

This  post strayed from my original intent.My intended reference was to an opportunity I had to be on a  panel to judge a debating competition at St. Andrew's College.

The contest obviously required pros and cons of a particular question. Points were scored for various aspects of arguments.No questions were directed to  professionals  to assist contestants to make up their minds and create arguments. A grasp of rules was obviously a pre-requisite. Points lost for failure to observe would be points thrown away and time wasted.As in any competition, be it chess, tennis, hockey, soccer or any tournament one might care to mention.

In politics, no goals are scored. There is no Stanley Cup. No glory for the team. No annual awards available on application to be named best  at this or that. We are a society awash with  special trophies and awards made common by regularity.

Only majority decisions are made by politicians;  good, bad or indifferent;  to the benefit or otherwise, of the community at large.

The trophy is not first-time election.   It is re-election.

It is the judgment of the electorate, depending on all sorts of  unrelated things. 

Opportunity for a politician to connect with a voter has never been better since advent of  internet and  direct contact. It is destined to grow.

It is what I am about here. It is what has infuriated my adversaries.

It is what  was determined  by hook or by crook, in absence of  open debate, logic, integrity or conscience, no matter the cost to the public treasury,to silence this blog.

Yet they did not. They silenced themselves.