What is accountability?
When it comes to public speaking, this is an interesting and important question. For politicians, doubly so, as politicians of all stripes have a tendency to suffer from "foot-in-mouth disease."
I am not a politician but I know that I have said things in a public forum that I would instantly take back. Most of us have done the same and regretted what we had to say. Unfortunately, a "do-over" is not possible.
And perhaps the biggest example in Canadian politics right now of someone that would like a do-over is Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. I suspect that he has said a lot of things over the past few months - or even years - that he wishes that he could take back.
But should we hold Mayor Ford or any politician to account for what they have said in public? Does being a public figure imply a higher level of accountability or is it an excuse to get away with saying anything? More to the point, should a politician just be allowed to apologize and that is that?
Consider, in all of the hype about Rob Ford and the Senate Scandal before Christmas, comments made by Industry Minister James Moore.
He was asked about childhood poverty in this country. After stating that the Conservative government would not usurp provincial jurisdiction, he continued on to say:
"How one certainly scales and defines poverty is not quite an apples to apples comparison all across the country. There's no question that prosperity is up, unemployment is down.
"Unemployment is down in every region of this country if you look over the past few years; it's slightly up if you look at where it was two and three years ago.
"More Canadians are working now than ever before. A million net new jobs have been created across this country, and through economic growth, obviously you create more prosperity, more opportunity for everybody.
"We've never been wealthier as a country than we are right now. Never been wealthier.
"Well, obviously nobody wants kids to go to school hungry. But, yeah, certainly we want to make sure that kids go to school full-bellied. But is that always the government's job to be there to serve people their breakfast?
"Empowering families with more power and resources so that they can feed their own children is, I think, a good thing.
"Is it my job to feed my neighbour's child? I don't think so."
The last line is the one that was used in sound bites across the country. And Mr. Moore has apologized for his comments but he has also claimed that it was taken out of context.
It is hard to see, though, when reading the entire answer how this was taken out of context considering the nature of the question to begin with, the topic of discussion under consideration, and the rest of the remarks in his answer.
It should be noted that this was not a prepared speech but an off-the-cuff answer to specific questions by a reporter. In other words, this was not something that a speech writer prepared but Mr. Moore's thoughts at that moment.
The question is - should he be held accountable? Is an apology enough?
Some people - indeed, the majority of Canadians - would be offended by the notion that we are not our brother's keeper. I am not a scholar of scripture but I dare say that there are many passages in religious texts that make just such a claim.
Indeed, most religions have some form of doctrine that says something like "suffer not the children; let them not go hungry or naked".
But this was one unguarded moment. One blunder. One slip of the tongue. Should a politician be held to account for such an incident?
That is a hard decision and only the next election will truly tell.
For me, though, the more damning line in Mr. Moore's answer isn't the question about whether it is his job to feed his neighbour's child.
It is: "We've never been wealthier as a country than we are right now."
Surely, if that is the case, then we should be wealthy enough to look after our poor? How can such a rich country allow children to suffer?
It is all well and good to point out that there are regional disparities. And that unemployment is down. But that is a bit like Scrooge, when asked to help the poor, saying: "Are there no prisons? No workhouses?"
We are a wealthy country. We enjoy a social safety net. It is in place because people trip up every now and then. Some need a helping hand. Some need someone to step in. And yes, sometimes that needs to be the government.
As Ghandi said: "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."
