D
ean Del Mastro is now the former MP for the Peterborough riding. Del Mastro has been out of the Conservative caucus since 2013, but he’s hung on in the House of Commons all through a trial over whether he did or did not overspend on his 2008 election campaign.
Recently, the court decided that he did. Guilty, was the ruling, on three charges.
Del Mastro announced he would fight, he would appeal… and then decided to jump before he was pushed, as his own former Conservative colleagues indicated they were just fine with an NDP motion calling for Del Mastro’s suspension.
Because politics generates irony the same way chainsaws generate sawdust, Del Mastro had once been a key defender of his party and its integrity in the House.
He was the point man for questions on the Robocalls scandal, which saw a lot of accusations of shenanigans a few years back.
He had also been a parliamentary secretary to PM Stephen Harper.
And yet, despite his former high esteem in the ranks of Parliament, Del Mastro was caught exceeding campaign spending limits, failing to report a personal contribution of $21,000 to his own campaign, and of knowingly submitting a falsified document.
How was Del Mastro, a professional politician for many years, not only foolish enough to try to break the rules, but stupid enough to think that he wouldn’t get caught?
I think that his trial judge, Justice Lisa Cameron, may be able to shed some light on this with her comments as she declared him guilty.
“There are a number of inconsistencies and improbabilities,” Cameron said of Del Mastro’s testimony.
“At times, the way in which he testified led me to believe that he is avoiding the truth…On a number of occasions, Del Mastro did not answer the questions put to him in cross-examination. He frequently obfuscated the evidence.”
Inconsistent… avoids questions… does not answer what he’s asked… Yep, that sounds like a politician.
To become a politician, you need a number of traits. It helps to be fervently extroverted.
Networking madly and knowing a lot of people personally has never hurt. Being highly intelligent or well informed has its perks, though it’s not an absolute requirement.
Loyalty to a party or party leader can aid a politician.
Bullheaded persistence is probably the most valuable trait — the successfully elected politician is often one who has failed more than once.
But one of the most important traits is a sense of personal destiny. You have to believe that you are righteous and that you can change things.
As for myself, I often feel powerless. I feel like no one listens or even cares what I have to say, and that my life is subject to vast forces outside of my control. Many of us feel like that, I think.
Not your typical politician. They are possessed with confidence, and often unwarranted confidence, in their own abilities to effect change.
If their cause is just and their methods honest, that’s great. But this kind of thinking can lead to a sort of crusade mentality.
The politician looks about and realizes that he or she is opposed on all sides by fools and evildoers. They need to win, darn it, because if they don’t, those other guys will screw everything up!
And then they can compromise themselves, cheating, lying, breaking the laws. From their point of view, it’s all in service to the greater good. And because of their sense of destiny, they never seem to know when to quit.
Dean Del Mastro certainly didn’t.
Matthew Claxton is a reporter for the Langley Advance.
