I like a good joke as much as anyone.
(Truth be told, I’m a little bit renowned for liking truly awful jokes as well.)
And I’m certainly of the opinion that a little bit of humour goes way towards taking the adversarial edge away from any number of situations.
That even goes for politics. Many politicians actually have quite nuanced senses of humour when you get to know them, and there’s no reason why political campaigns shouldn’t be allowed to display that ability. (Often, politicians hide their humour because it carries political risks as well as benefits.)
In the current Newfoundland and Labrador election campaign, I really enjoyed an online advertisement from Progressive Conservative Leader Ches Crosbie, where his daughters practically begged voters to vote for him, just so they could get him (and his near-endless discussion of the minutiae of provincial political issues) out of the house. It was funny, and, for Crosbie, who often comes across as staid, it was humanizing.
But this week saw two bone-headed attempts at humour at the federal political level, both dished out as quick hits over the internet. (And believe me — I’m not suggesting for a moment that the federal Liberals aren’t above dipping into the land of cheap-and-easy shots. They just didn’t put any out this week.)
The federal New Democrats struck first: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was set to talk with U.S. President Joe Biden, and the NDP sent out what they said was a leaked copy of the agenda. The document looked like its marked up with crayon, with notes about an ice cream summit at Harrington Lake, with a handwritten “OMG! YES! Get local ice cream, special flavour Maple or Poutine. Brills!”
Ham-handed and juvenile — and not really worth even a smile.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Not to be outdone, the Conservatives apparently noticed that there was a porta-potty outside the building that houses the Prime Minister Office, so they had Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole do a little 18-second video bit saying, “We’re going to move Justin Trudeau out of this office into a more appropriate office, we’ve got something lined up already for him” and pointing to the porta-potty.
Ouch.
I get it — the world is changing, and it’s harder and harder for politicians to reach not only new voters, but their traditional base as well. People have to try new things to leave an effective mark with a population that’s deluged with information every day — so things have to be edgier, brighter and bigger, if for no other reason than to make sure that you keep yourself front-of-mind in a crowded landscape.
But just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Whatever you think of P.E.I. Senator Mike Duffy, he did throw out a telling line when he derided the backroom crowd in Stephen Harper’s PMO, saying, “That’s what this Senate’s about, sober second thought, not taking dictation from kids in short pants down the hall.”
There are a lot of unelected kids in short pants in the nation’s political back rooms. Sometimes, they have good ideas that older hands might not come up with or even fully understand — and sometimes, they have juvenile, embarrassing ideas that should never leave the drawing board. Political leaders should be careful not to confuse the two.
I know a five-year-old who likes to put the words “poop” and “butt” into every sentence he can. It’s only a phase, because he likes to see the shock on peoples’ faces. And while it’s memorable — and even hilariously funny, given the right circumstances — I wouldn’t recommend it as a political strategy.
Russell Wangersky’s column appears in SaltWire newspapers and websites across Atlantic Canada.
