Politics and Self-Fellation

Every year the Hill Times runs a poll of various politicos where they nominate themselves as the most "effective" and "valuable" politicians at work today.  It's mostly a farce, of course, a way for those in power (since the ones in power tend to have the most votes available) to pat themselves on the back and try to dredge up some publicity.  It's also something for die-hard party supporters to point to when making arguments over whether so-and-so is an effective politician.

This year, surprising nobody, Stephen Harper came in first place.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who dazzled Cabinet ministers, MPs, Senators and staffers last Wednesday night in Ottawa when he held an impromptu rock concert for the Tories' Christmas party, was voted the year's most valuable politician, according to this year's 14th All Politics Poll: The Best and Worst of Politics in 2010.

Notice the language here? Harper "dazzled" cabinet ministers, resulting in 21% of the votes cast in the poll. This, the article claims, "in spite of an uneven year, as thousands of Canadians took to the streets to protest the decision to prorogue Parliament, academia, and NGOs slammed the modifications to the census, and the government took a battering during the fall on how it decided to buy $16-billion worth of F-35 fighter jets." But of course, the PM was nevertheless "respected by respondents of all political bents" for his economic policies and the like.

Contrast that sort of language with the article's write-up of the third place winner, Jack Layton.

In third place, and after a concerted campaign by NDP staffers who strategically voted in this year's unscientific survey, is NDP Leader Jack Layton (Toronto-Danforth, Ont.). While it may have been a whipped vote for the New Democrats, respondents had a variety of reasons for nominating their leader, including not whipping his party's vote last fall on repealing the long-gun registry.

Emphasis mine.

Harper won first place! What a wonderful survey that reflects reality as we know it.

Layton won third place. Well, that's just because of strategic voting. Also, it's an unscientific survey so, you know, whatevs.

(Harper also came in as the third least-valuable politician according to the poll, but the article doesn't really bother explaining why or how. Modern journalism, folks!)

An eye-opening commentary on the whole spectacle came from Megan Leslie, NPD-Halifax, who won "Favourite up-and-comer" with 21.6% of the votes:

"Whether it's The Hill Times or other polls, we have always seen women in up-and-coming categories because women who are up-and-comers are not threatening, right? If you look at who are the 'powerful people,' who are the 'skilled ministers,' it isn't women. And that's because we're talking about positions where there actually is power.

"To be an up-and-comer, you know, it's nice, it's cute, you get a pat on the head, and 'Isn't that great to see Megan rising up the ranks,' but it's still not threatening. So I think we still need to have a gendered lens when we're looking at these kinds of polls," she said. "It doesn't mean we've broken through."

Anyway, the first link in this post goes to the article reporting the circle-jerk in question. Go ahead and read it, it's worth a laugh.