Another relevant thesis is that the more people you are trying to please, the more sides of your mouth you need to talk out of.

These support the conclusion that circumstance obliges Michael Ignatieff to appear more hypocritical than Elizabeth May.

No one can become president of Imperial Tobacco, pope to millions of Roman Catholics or prime minister of Canada without a great deal of hypocrisy.

The choice in politics is to wield power or to speak truth. Occasionally one can manage both, but not often. Elizabeth speaks truth to power and so avoids a lot of hypocrisy. Iggy is not trying to play her game.

This argument is about why the Canadian electorate should allow partisan politics to succeed at all. When will Canadians learn that the way we presently choose prime ministers encourages more hypocrisy than our taste buds can stand, leaving all of us with a bad taste in most sides of our mouths?

Bob Halstead
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Earth