I agree with Andrew Coyne here:
Anyone with a distaste for politics as I’ve described it is unlikely to run; if they do, they are unlikely to win; and if they succeed, it is usually because politics changes them. Yes, it’s an adversarial system, like the law. But law is a profession; politics is a pathology. Twenty-four-hours-a-day, total immersion in partisan propaganda — my side good, their side bad, all the time, without exception — would drive anyone a little mad.
And this is precisely why I believe we must stop to admire the idealism of those pro-life MPs who stood up to so eloquently lay out their principles yesterday over M-312. They were putting forward new ideas. They did so at personal cost and against the desires of the Prime Minister. This is the success of yesterday.
I agree, for the most part, with Andrew Coyne’s article. However, I am not so bleak as he is. I think we can change culture and that politics is not the only way to do so. But there are moments when politics works to change culture even when what is at stake a small motion that won’t pass. Yesterday was one such moment for those who were paying attention.
I’ve just written a thank you letter to Mr. Woodworth, and I would like to cc it to the rest of the MPs that spoke towards the motion. Were there any others besides Ms. Ambler, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Warawa?
PS I would suggest that everyone reading this should take a few minutes and write their thanks. What those MPs did took a lot of courage, and they probably are going to get some nasty letters as a result of it. Let’s make the positive overwhelm the negative, shall we?