Thought for a Candidate

In a few more weeks we’ll be heading to the polls to elect the next Prime Minister of Canada.  In the last election more than 40% of eligible voters didn’t bother to vote, and that’s too bad, because God by His grace has given us this opportunity to live in a democratic country (at least for now).  And the choice we make will affect every aspect of our lives.  We don’t often think of it that way, but it’s true!   Through taxes the federal government affects our treasure, through governance and laws they affect our talents (for such things dictate what we can and cannot do).  And the next prime minister will be one of only a handful that we experience in our lifetime – forever etched into the canon of history, they govern us for a time. 

Time, talent and treasure – every aspect of our lives touched by this one decision, because this one act of voting puts in place a man or woman to whom is given the right to touch all those aspects of our lives.  So we have to choose wisely.  Not impulsively, not without prudence.  With so much at stake, you’ll want to look closely at the facts and the closer you look, the more confusing your choice appears to be.

Our current prime minister is a conservative.  Yet he runs a 52 Billion dollar deficit, even though spending our way out of recession is an NDP policy.  Ignatieff is a liberal.  Says he’s a man of of the people.  Yet he has a PhD in history, taught at Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard and authored 17 books including “Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Classical Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment”.   Well, that connects with my world!

“I’m a conservative!”, “I’m a Liberal”, “I’m for the Green Party”.  The labels say simplicity, the facts say complexity!  For each of the candidates is, at the sum of it, a person just like you and me.  And just like you and I, they are full of paradox and mystery.  They do one logical thing and the next you wonder, “Where did that come from?” They say one thing that’s profound and the next goes viral on YouTube.  And that frustrates us because we don’t want them to be complex – we only value complexity in ourselves - want them to be simple – or at least our experience of them to be simple, so that we can apply the labels they’ve given us.  But the more we know of them, the less that simple label seems to fit.

Such is the difficulty we encounter when trying to understand a candidate.  Though it be hard to determine their character and real motives, we struggle to do so anyway – much is at stake.  This person we’re voting for affects our treasure and talent for a time, albeit from a distance.  Now if that’s a worthwhile effort (and I truly hope you know it is), then how much more so should we make an effort to understand our Lord, who grants us our treasure, gives us our talent and creates us our time, and not just for 5 years from a distance, but intimately, all around us, and forever!