Is there a shortage of strong political leaders in Canada?

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is a poster boy for what a Canadian politician should not be. Over the past several weeks of an increasingly bizarre scandal, he has confessed to smoking crack cocaine, apologized for a series of public drunken binges and admitted to rampantly and wantonly lying to the public at large.

But even before all of Ford’s public issues rose to the surface, Ford had trouble leading Toronto city council. He failed to build consensus among councillors, most of who were open to his right-minded governance strategy. He picked petty fights with opponents and turned more than one potential ally into a bitter rival. Long before Ford’s public reputation was eternally tarnished, the jury was out on Ford as a civic leader. As one political analyst puts it, there is a difference between being a strong leader and a strong-willed one, and Ford is the latter.

“I don’t think he has been a strong leader,” University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman told Yahoo Canada News.  “He has been a strong-willed leader. I think he is bullheaded. A strong leader, even before this furor six months ago, would not have lost as many votes as he did on council. A strong leader would not have lost so many people from his executive committee.

“I think he had a strong mandate. I think Ford may have been popular with a large segment of the population … but he didn’t demonstrate strong leadership of the council. He lost control of it early on.”

When discussing Canada’s flawed political leaderships, Rob Ford certainly stands out from the crowd. But he by no means stands alone. As many as four Quebec mayors and interim mayors have been forced to step down amid a province-wide corruption investigation, two other big-city mayors have faced court challenges on their mandates, and another faced criminal charges.

On the provincial front there are ongoing controversies surrounding politically-motivated cash dumps in Ontario and a health care use in Alberta. In Ottawa, the House of Commons is embroiled in the Senate scandal and members of Parliament await the day they can return to scoring political points off of cultivated outrage.

In short, Canadian politics has not given the public much to be inspired by. A new poll suggests the country has a dissatisfied electorate and a lack of confidence in its elected leaders. The machine isn’t working the way it should in Canada. Is it any wonder confidence wanes? Who is there to be confident in?

A survey conducted by Leger on behalf of Yahoo Canada underlines the country’s lack of support in its elected officials. Only 14 per cent of respondents said they were significantly confident in the provincial governments they elected, and a matching 14 per cent expressed significant confidence in the federal government. Only 21 per cent of Canadians said they were confident in the work of their local officials.

Dave Scholz, Leger’s chief marketing officer, told Yahoo Canada News that that lack of confidence comes from dissatisfaction in our elected leaders, but also the system as a whole. We do not believe our leaders have done all they can do improve the country.

“We are talking not just about the political entity, we are also talking about the actual manpower and working entity,” Scholz said. “And there is not a lot of confidence in that institution right now. Whether you are in Alberta or Ontario or the east coast, we generally have a feeling that it is not something we should be confident about.”

But that lack of confidence only tells part of the story about Canada’s elected officials. There is also a lack of understanding, or perhaps conviction, in what the public perceives as strong leadership. When Canadians were asked what three qualities an elected municipal official should have, 40 per cent of Canadians said honesty. Another 37 per cent said they had no idea.

The next most common responses were “good listening skills” at 13 per cent and “working for the good of the municipality” with nine per cent of the response. Only eight per cent of Canadians said they wanted their leaders to be competent at their jobs.

While a cynic could point to this as a sign that we expect little of our leaders, it could simply point to a disparity in the way we determine strong leadership. According to the Leger poll, Western provinces, where cities such as Calgary and Edmonton have elected high profile and highly respected mayors, tend to hold higher opinions of their municipal leaders.

Sholz said the results could underline the adage that “perception is power.” If voters believe their elected municipal official is strong, they are more likely to think they are accomplishing something once they are in office.

Wiseman certainly agrees that there is a difference between the perception of strength and actual strength.

“I think some of the strongest leaders, perceptually, project the image that they are just part of a team,” Wiseman told Yahoo Canada News. “With council politics, it is the public perception. It is not whether you are a good leader or a bad leader. You might be a very good leader. But if the perception is you are not, then you lose.

“A leader is someone who can actually bring people along who can build the biggest tent and have people who have quite different views like the same guy.”

In Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford continues to craft his image as a strong leader by underlining the few victories he has squeezed from council and project himself as a “man of the people.” But at two former allies, thrown from his executive committee over personal squabbles, now oppose him, his hand-picked transit chair has announced she will run against him in the next election and his deputy mayor is publicly asking him to temporarily leave office.

If strong political leadership is about building the biggest tent, Ford falls short. And many of Canada’s leaders do as well.

(Photos courtesy Reuters/The Canadian Press. Statistics courtesy Leger/Yahoo Canada)