The real issue is power

We live in a small town far away from the hustle of urban areas and even further away from where the decisions are made. Many of us naively believe that decision making takes place in the house of commons and perhaps the back rooms of the prime minister's office but the reality is hard to accept.

The decisions that really matter are made by a few men who command power and influence and few of them ever are elected to anything, their power and influence comes from their wealth and awesome advantage large amounts of capital affords extremely wealthy people.

While we are fed a daily dish of rumours and rumours of rumours from Ottawa and the reporters who try to cover that confusion we are at the mercy of the bits and pieces of reality that stumble through. Government leaders rely upon a large number of well trained, former journalists, to churn out material that will lead and mislead the real reporters, who are to few in number and from that float sam, comes what we mistakenly call the news.

We as individuals, citizen-voters are being manipulated on a

scale that completely makes it impossible for us to know what is real and what is just intentional designed misinformation. Be the issue Kyoto, global warming, health care, Afghanistan, we have no reliable tools to make decisions upon and that leaves the politician in power with the ability to do pretty much as they want. Well, that's what it seems like, but that is also simply not the case.

Most political leaders are completely without power. It was Moa Tse Tung leader of the Chinese revolution who said simply that political power comes from the barrel of a gun. Though we may dismiss his contention, he is 100% correct. Political power is reliant upon the forces that make it possible for a politician to gain power and then to hold on to it and you would be foolish to think that Stephen Harper, or his predecessor, really ever had any real choices to make. Political leaders are employees and if they want to keep their jobs, they do what those who pay to put them in power want. We consider it unseemly in Canada to have unruly politicians, those who do not do as they are told, shot, but for a politician, death need not be real, but cut off from money you might as well be dead.

Tomorrow in Ensign watch for Robert Ede's rant on political leadership and keep in mind what this story has attempted to explain.