It is 'slim pickings' out there
The problem: incompetent leaders and parliamentarians who lack basic skills and education
Imagine a House of Commons where instead of attention seekers and professional tiktokers you have a house full of educated people that can for example discern between facts and fake news or know for example that Russia fought with the Allies against the Nazis? or that mRNA is a peer-reviewed fact-based safe alternative to traditional vaccination?
Imagine a House of Commons where its members are working on making your life better instead of bickering 24/7, focused on how to undermine the other party or how to become more popular just for the sake of it without any regard to the actual implications of their strategy might have in your life?
Imagine what that would look like ... Imagine the potential of having experts and professionals running a country. We'd like that.
How did we get here?
From a nation of compromise seekers, into this polarization? ...
Are these really our choices? someone without a brain, someone without a heart, and someone without a heart or a brain? A House full of YouTubers, Instagram influencers, and wanna-be TikTok stars.
You know who I am talking about, so how do we fix this? How do we prevent popularity seekers, egomaniacs, and conspiracy theorists from running our country and instead replace it with hardworking professionals.
The solution: A competence test to become an electable public official
In Canada, we require most professional skills to prove and show their competence through provincial and federal matriculation of their skill of choice. Physicians, carpenters, plumbers, accountants, lawyers, realtors, drivers, pharmacists ... are required to certify their competencies with the provincial and/or federal governments.
Yet, the most important job, the job of running our country requires no demonstration of skill or knowledge of any sort, except for one apparently - manipulation of the masses and charisma.
No more
If elected, one of our priorities will be to table matriculation and certification exams and licenses to run for the House of Commons and Senate. If successful expand to provincial and Municipal elections as well.
Akin to an MCAT or SAT, this exam will require at least basic knowledge in areas such as basic knowledge of science, public administration, math, history, and so on. Yes, We'd like to know that the people running the country know at least basic sciences, can do simple math or know who fought against whom in World War 2.
How can we entrust the running of a nation, when we are not even sure these people can even perform basic tasks an elementary-grade student can?
No, not everybody is equipped to work in government. Just like not everyone is equipped to be a nurse, an accountant, or a developer and a selection process is necessary.
Government needs to be left to people who can govern with the skills, education, and accreditation needed for governance.