Leadership by Conflict and Fear

In the martial arts we talk a lot about leadership and the power of influence. There are many ways to influence people and the methods that a leader employs tend to reflect the leader’s values, vision, and skill set. I believe the leadership example we set in our martial arts schools is becoming increasingly important as our national leaders manipulate their way into power with short term strategies that serve their ambition at the expense of the people they purportedly serve.

 Stephen Harper has used fear to manipulate his way to a majority government. Despite inheriting a budget surplus when he took power, Harper has run up the biggest deficit in Canadian history yet he successfully promotes himself and his government as being fiscally conservative. He has the Canadian public in so much fear of how bad things could be if another “less financially conservative” party were in power, that the majority of us are oblivious to the financial damage his party has done in a very short time.

The leader of our official opposition, Thomas Mulcair, has shown his short term political strategy by attempting to cause a divide between the east and the west to gain support for his political ambitions. Blaming Western Canada for Eastern Canada’s economic woes may serve his campaign but at what expense to an already fractured national unity? Why would anyone purposely promote internal strife and conflict in a country he hopes to one day lead?

Yeah, my journalling has been getting more political over the past few years, but come on. When are we going to get leaders who are there to serve the people first and their own ambition second?

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda