I used to have a boss who had a unique way of vetting prospective employees. During the interview, he would suggest going for a coffee and ask them to drive. He used to say that he could learn everything he needed to about a person after spending five minutes in their car.
If the car was clean, he assumed you were organized. He said he could tell, by the way someone drove, whether they were aggressive, passive or just plain crazy.
I was reminded of that boss after last weekend's Vancouver Sun report that stated Premier Christy Clark recently ran a red light, at the urging of her son, with a reporter in her car. I would imagine that my former boss would judge that Clark's red light running shows that she has poor judgment and the she has no problem breaking the rules if she doesn't foresee any consequences.
My boss wouldn't hire her - and neither should voters.
I know my colleague opposite wants to dismiss Clark's actions as a minor faux pas. And, not surprisingly, he's willing to forgive and forget Adrian Dix's little "mistake" with regard to a SkyTrain trip without a ticket.
But these are relevant issues and give us a glimpse of a politician's character. The media should be reporting about these things and voters should be paying attention. We should be looking for patterns.
It's the same thing at the federal level. The Tories have taken a lot of heat for a negative attack ad featuring Justin Trudeau doing a strip tease. But, in my opinion, Trudeau doing a strip tease in public - whether it's for charity or not - says a lot about his maturity and his judgment. Do you think you would ever see Stephen Harper or Barack Obama doing that?
Our politicians are adults who choose to go into politics and, as such, have given the Canadian public the right to judge and comment on their policies, their leadership qualities and their experience as well as their character and maturity.
They are - as Clark likes to say - applying to be our premier.
Clark running a red light is another reason she shouldn't be getting this job.
