{"id":18226,"date":"2017-08-30T16:58:22","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T20:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18226"},"modified":"2017-08-30T16:58:22","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T20:58:22","slug":"politics-as-usual-privacy-and-public-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-privacy-and-public-office\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Privacy and Public Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you think you have the right to know about the divorce proceedings of anyone who seeks elected office? The nitty gritty of their finances, their claims and counter claims against one another, their custody arrangements, all the nasty, ugly details of their \u201cconscious uncoupling\u201d?
\nDo you think any of that has any bearing on how or if they should hold elected or appointed office?
\nI ask because some folks certainly seem to think so.
\nThere has been a spate of media stories recently about Canada\u2019s newly appointed Governor General, the accomplished Julie Payette. You know, Canada\u2019s second woman in space. A woman who, according to her biography, speaks multiple languages, has multiple degrees, and has been to space \u2013 twice!
\nThat Julie Payette, who is now splashed across the headlines of national newspapers, not for her achievements but because she has sought to keep her private business \u2013 well \u2013 private.
\nLeaving aside my thoughts about the whole idea of ceremonial offices, I am appalled at the lengths media and others have gone to get the dirt \u2013 because that\u2019s what it is, dirt, gossip \u2013 about the circumstances surrounding Ms. Payette\u2019s divorce.
\nMedia outlets have sought court orders to open up the private court records of her divorce proceedings. From the sounds of it, her divorce has been acrimonious. Most divorces are. But what makes this one titillating is that it comes with an accusation \u2013 almost immediately dropped \u2013 of assault. And it\u2019s that last bit that the media is focused on, the alleged assault. This despite the fact that the charge was almost immediately dropped. As if this is the first divorce in history where the parties make allegedly unfounded accusations against one another in the heat of the battle.
\nAs a consequence of this little tidbit of information, I have now read multiple stories about the \u201ccontroversial\u201d appointment of Ms. Payette to Canada\u2019s highest ceremonial office.
\nAs if her brutal divorce somehow taints her appointment.
\nI have made this case before, unless you can demonstrate to me how one\u2019s personal life \u2013 one\u2019s marriage \u2013 has any impact on how one comports oneself in public office, then I think it\u2019s none of our darn business.
\nIf we expect all our elected officials to be paragons of virtue \u2013 spotless, stainless, perfect \u2013 with perfect marriages, two children, and a dog, then we will never have anyone to seek, let alone hold public office. And besides, to get all biblical, who among us should cast the first stone?
\nBefore you send me a flaming email, I\u2018m not saying anything goes.
\nAn advocate of neo-Nazism, for example, would clearly not be a good choice as Canada\u2019s Governor General. But the very public metaphorical flogging of an extraordinarily accomplished woman whose great crime seems to be that she went through a horrible divorce is quite simply appalling.
\nIs it any of our business? No, it is most definitely not.
\nPersonally, I think all this fuss is really just prurient interest coupled with a bit of good old fashioned partisan nonsense. Frankly, if this is what passes for political scandal in Canada \u2013 a nasty divorce – then boy oh boy, we really are pretty boring.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Do you think you have the right to know about the divorce proceedings of anyone who seeks elected office? The nitty gritty of their finances, their claims and counter claims against one another, their custody arrangements, all the nasty, ugly details of their \u201cconscious uncoupling\u201d? Do you think any of that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4JY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 10:42:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}