OTTAWA | That’s not flying high these days in federal Parliament.
Between the accusations of being crazy, full of shit and barbaric, anything goes.
We are observing in real time the rotting of our public debate.
The next time a politician has a dirty word on their lips, they should remember that the political class is among the first victims of the current toxic climate.
Tense climate
For months, Justin Trudeau has no longer revealed the details of his travels. Neither has the Deputy Prime Minister, since she was accosted in an elevator in Alberta.
The safety of elected officials worries the RCMP, which has provided them with panic buttons and security cameras to monitor their residences.
The Prime Minister is having rocks thrown at him in the middle of the election campaign. He has to cancel partisan events out of fear for his safety.
Not to mention the death threats on social networks which spare almost no party.
Canadians have always been able to boast that there is a closeness here between our elected officials and the population.
This privileged bond is slowly fading away, thanks to a toxic, hyperpartisan climate to which elected officials themselves contribute.
Radical
It seems that federal politicians are now just political adversaries. THE clash visions for Canada serves as an alibi for the most austere accusations.
When Pierre Poilievre suggests that Justin Trudeau is personally responsible for victims of the opioid crisis, it is no longer possible to debate the substance of the matter.
Same principle when Francis Drouin treats witnesses in parliamentary committee with whom he does not agree with a lot of crap.
When Yves-François Blanchet calls pro-life conservatives a “horde of barbarians,” they are not only wrong, but they become enemies.
Some will say that shouting matches in politics are not new. There are many examples of tantrums throughout the decades.
But you have to be blind not to see in the current context a normalization of verbal swelling and extreme division.
The radical is not me, it is the other, they say to themselves to justify dealing ever lower blows.
Unpopular
For a long time, traditional mass media has served as a preferred venue for the exchange of perspectives and points of view.
A space in decline replaced by social networks which lock us in our little chapels under the pretext of offering us “personalized content”.
The increasingly clannish confrontation on these platforms between the parties aims above all to raise money from the most fanatical of their voters through carefully staged indignation.
This is not without consequences, including on the parties themselves.
A poll published this week by the Angus Reid firm reveals the ambient polarization: the popularity of the three leaders of the main federal parties has never been so low, at the same time, in the last 50 years.
The fact remains that insulting, blowing the whistle, misinforming, treating your opponent like an enemy pays off. Too expensive, probably, to stop.
