Our choice

It would be easy for voters to slough off the Senate expense scandal as “business as usual” in Ottawa, and yet another excuse to become even more disengaged with our political process.
But that’s precisely the wrong tack. Canadians, instead, need to take a stand—to rise up and say, “This is not acceptable,” “This will not be tolerated,” and “Our country deserves better.”
In a sense, we have only ourselves to blame. Voter apathy continues to sink to new lows, which is most visible at election time through plummeting turnout rates but, in effect, is a cancer that’s allowed to fester by our disturbing tendency to tune out the day-to-day happenings on Parliament Hill.
And frankly, if we don’t care what goes on in Ottawa, why would the politicians?
Canadians’ justifiable anger over the current tempest must not be allowed to fizzle out. Rather, we need to channel that wrath into demanding more accountability from our MPs, MPPs, and senators at all times and, equally important, reclaiming the power that rests in our hands by being an informed and active electorate.
Politicians work for us, remember, not the other way around. With that, of course, comes the responsibility of overseeing their actions and productivity.
In short, we can allow the Senate scandal to further erode our political system, or spur change to reinvigorate it.
The choice is ours.