Why do people let the media lead them around by the nose? The way that pollsters and conservative news sources are bellowing from the rooftops, you’d think that the Gomery inquiry has produced evidence of mass genocide and frequent puppy-kicking by the federal Liberal party, and that there’s an angry mob of pissed-off Canadians charging up Parliament Hill as we speak ready to lynch the cancerous bastards.

The latest Ekos poll that people seem to be putting so much faith in says they surveyed 1,125 Canadians, and that 36% said they’d vote for the Conservatives were an election to be held today, while only 25% said they’d vote Liberal. So what are the odds, d’you suppose, that they’ve all read the full testimony from Jean Brault, and understand just why it’s so bad? Isn’t it more likely that they’re just doing what every political commentator is doing, reacting to a juicy scandal because they’re told it’s a scandal and not because of the content of said scandal? How many know who Jean Brault is? How many know what the Gomery inquiry is about? Certainly not all of them.

So Ekos calls these people up and asks an unbelievably loaded question like, “Is this the worst scandal that you can recall?”, you’ll get a lot of people who say, “Yes, dammit, hang them from the nearest yardarm!”, and 36-25 lead for Harper gets trotted out, and words “catastrophic” and “explosive” and “shaky minority” get tossed around by breathless talk radio hosts and all of a sudden we’re on our way to another fucking election as soon as June. But here’s the thing: that same Ekos poll also reveals that even more people said that, while the scandal was bad, it’s no worse than any other scandal. Which makes it not much of scandal at all, by my interpretation. And more importantly, the poll reveals that “just 15 per cent say the election should be called now versus 62 per cent who say it should wait until the inquiry submits its report”. 15%. A whopping 1 in 7. That’s how many people want it now. So relax. I, along with that 62%, suggest that we let reason win the day and wait. If it turns out that an unforgivable scandal has transpired, then I suppose they’ll be punished. But it’s the expected punishment that’s the most laughable aspect of the whole story.

Here’s what I mean: what’s truly baffling is the naiveté of the people who must presume that when they bring down the Liberal government, the incoming conservative government will be the model of honesty and integrity, that no scandal shall ever occur on their watch, that such corruption as this would not occur under a Tory regime. So while news anchors and editorials leap to the juciest conclusion — Liberal bad, Tory good — the viewing public follows along, bleating angrily, not sure what they’re upset about, but dammit, we’d better get answers!