Canadian Politicians

Politicians should be judged based on their accomplishments and not their personalities as the actions of a politician affect citizens to a much greater extent than their character, politicians make important decisions unexpected of them in regard to their public persona, and as the personalities of politicians often differ from their public personas. To begin, the actions of a politician are of much greater importance than how the public perceives the politician, a prime example being Mackenzie King, “a pragmatic and cautious politician who avoided making decisions if he could . . . [A] deliberate technique to try to please everyone” (Cranny and Moles 114-115). Though he was perceived positively by the vast majority of Canadians because of …show more content…
Lastly, it can be seen that the personality of a politician is not equivalent to their public persona, as demonstrated with King who was known to be selfish publicly but secretly donated millions of dollars to Canadians. While King was known for his dull and ambiguous speeches, “[after] King’s death, it was discovered that this apparently colourless man had, as he wrote in his diary, ‘a very double life’” (115) and his personality and beliefs were much different than how they were perceived to be by the Canadian public when he was living. As the character of a politician such as Mackenzie King cannot be judged accurately, it is best not to judge a politician on their public persona and instead, they should be judged based on their actions. In summary, politicians should be judged based on their accomplishments and actions as opposed to their personalities as their actions have a much greater effect on citizens, their decisions made that do not correlate with their public persona are often of great historical significance, and as the character of a politician is often not assessed