Why I could never be a politician

The election today was full of surprises, suffice to say. Some were pleasant (the rise of the NDP and the fall of the Bloc) and one was thoroughly unpleasant (one guess). A group of us gathered tonight to watch the results and I don't think any of us were prepared for what unfolded. The tone of the evening started off light but as we saw the election results unfold, there was a palpable sense of doom. The prospect of a Conservative majority for the next 4 years certainly put us all into a state of disbelief and I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Alas, this is democracy and the people have spoken...though a lot of it is unintelligible.

However, I think what resonated with me was how hard it was to be a politician. Michael Ignatieff gave a heartbreaking speech in defeat and amidst all the mudslinging that unfortunately accompanies politics, you sometimes forget that they're just people with dreams and a vision. I even felt badly for Gilles Duceppe even though I don't agree with the views of his party (at all). Going through medical school, you open yourself to a lot of scrutiny in the process of learning to become a doctor. Though it's a necessary part of medical training, you do often feel about two feet tall and I can't imagine what it would be like to be publicly lambasted on the news, in the papers and in really stupid smear campaigns (Stephen Harper, I am looking squarely at you - if you do nothing else, hire a new marketing team and make commercials that don't insult the intelligence of 98% of Canadians).