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| 2003-12-31 Some of our leaders are missing in action | | | Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 Some of our leaders are missing Seasoned journalists have often told me that week from Christmas to New Years is usually a news dead-zone unless natural disasters or calamitous events transpire. So this holiday season surely is the exception to the rule. In Iran, officials now fear 50,000 deaths from the earthquake which leveled the ancient city of Bam on Boxing Day. Here at home, the apparent Canadian origin of the mad cow diagnosed in the U.S., the continuing confusion for traveling landed immigrants and the permanent resident card fiasco and a brewing political scandal in B.C. involving the aides to governing Cabinet ministers have also kept newsrooms hopping. Through all these stories, the thread of leadership, or more specifically the lack of Canadian political leadership, is sadly very apparent. As your opinionated scribe writes, the news wires report that Canada has basically only committed a paltry $750,000 plus some blankets to the Iranian relief effort so far. While I realize our overseas development budget has been gutted in the last decade and what money does flow is usually thinly veiled corporate welfare, this response is pathetic. Memo to Prime Minister Martin: please take five minutes away from your Caribbean holiday at an “undisclosed location” and set the wheels of government in motion for a contribution more befitting of our enviable national wealth. Meanwhile, the silence of our new Agriculture Minister Bob Speller (finally broken yesterday) during the U.S. mad cow identification is equally abysmal. Premier Klein and his team in Alberta have been more vocal in calling for calm and stressing the real issue of the integration of the North American beef market is and the continental fallout from this incident is of paramount importance … no the origin of the cow. Over at Immigration, new Minister Judy Sgro is apparently on vacation until January 12th and has left her officials in charge of the brouhaha that is now erupting at airports and will continue to do so for another 48 hours as landed immigrants who do not have their permanent resident cards will be at the discretionary mercy of Air Canada and other airline clerks around the globe as to whether or not they can come home to Canada from traveling abroad. Apparently her officials have put a contingency plan into place but if you look at comments made by airline officials, this so-called contingency plan is top-secret since they have no knowledge of such a plan. Out in B.C., the RCMP has seized evidence at least two provincial Cabinet Minister’s offices as two (and perhaps more) top-level ministerial aides are being investigated for alleged links to organized crime. Both Premier Campbell and Finance Minister Gary Collins (whose aide has since been fired) have so far seen no reason to cut their Hawaiian vacations short and return home to face mounting questions from the public or the press. Yours truly has done a lot of reading about leadership in the last few years and while not every scandal or crisis necessitates nor warrants people to drop what they’re doing and return home, at certain times, one’s presence is important. And regardless of whether you buy into the emotional intelligence school of leadership thought or the situation-contextual approaches, one of the first rules of leadership is showing up to address a situation when its gravity or implications warrant a human presence. A shining example was former Ontario Health Minster Tony Clement’s leadership during last spring’s SARS crisis in Toronto. No one expected him to put on lab coat and diagnose virus strains, but they did expect and demand the politician responsible to address the international community at bring calmness to an evolving crisis situation … which he did in spades. Our vacationing political leaders may get great suntans over the next few days, but inattention to brewing scandals at home could burn them for weeks and months to come. | | |
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