Jason Kenney and the Importance of Apologies

“I say a definite ‘no’ to Lukaszyk. I don’t think it makes sense to create a precedent to do a special caucus meeting for every visiting minister from the provincial government. Plus he is a complete and utter asshole.”

Words that Jason Kenney is probably wishing he never wrote – not necessarily because he wasn’t feeling them at the time, but because of the consequences he is facing now.

Still; a Harper Tory, Kenney has a whole Party track record of never being wrong, of defaulting to reactive attack or defense positions, not so much conciliation.  The emotional right (which is found in all Parties) has a lineage of instinctive behaviour; one might even say it’s genetic.  There’s a reason why the right sees the world through a polarized lens and solves problems by declaring a war on them.  War-declaring just sounds so authoritative and definite; it’s so much simpler to see the world as kill or be killed.

Once you’ve staked a position, even if you come to realize it’s the wrong one, it can be very hard to back down.  This whole “face” thing comes in to play – confidence, decisiveness, never accepting blame and the “strength” to never blink first are all associated as leadership traits.  The ability to step back from the abyss gets harder the closer to the ledge you get.

Which only makes it all the more impressive that Kenney has backed down, at least privately to the wronged party, and said sorry.  To apologize is to take ownership, admit culpability and, as a consequence, recognize responsibility to think things through at least a bit the next time.  We tend to mistake dominance as leadership, which isn’t the case; leadership is about vision and empowerment.

This is no small feat, and one Kenney should take pride in.  Apologizing for a silly mistake isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a demonstration of rational thought – which should be desirable in any leader.  If I were on the Oppositions benches, I would certainly make a point of mentioning this fact – not as a club to beat Kenney with, but through genuine respect at the gesture.  You encourage good behaviour by acknowledging what is right, not by punishing what is wrong.  that is, if you’re goal is a stronger Canada, not partisan interests.  That latter approach seems to be working well these days, doesn’t it?

If you can teach Kenney and, more broadly, Team Harper that there is much to be gained through ethical behaviour, you can perhaps encourage more of the same.  Lord knows there are policy directions that need to be changed quickly if we’re to avoid complicity in some very bad consequences.

Because no matter how comfortable one gets with saying sorry, it’s far more efficient to just do the right thing the first time around.