Like it or not, we face another election. What factors will you use to make your voting decision? The record and integrity of the party and the local candidate? The philosophy of the party? The age, sex, and marital status of the candidate? The speaking skills or charisma of the party leader or the local candidate?
All of the above will influence voters, but why not ask them, “Have you completed your apprenticeship.” Have the people you intend to elect received training and experience as politicians or in some other closely related field? I’m making this point because all of us learn best by doing, by working with experienced people.
I’ll illustrate from my own experience. At age 16, I began working in a radio repair shop. When I walked in the door, I knew nothing about the trade and less about most other things.
My new boss never told me what to do; he always showed me. If I fumbled or fouled up in any way, we simply repeated the process until I got it right. In the early days of the job, he would listen carefully to every word as I interacted with customers, then later critique my performance and coach me for the next time. In difficult circumstances, he came to my rescue. Soon my life filled with tubes, capacitors, resistors, and voltage and new knowledge crowded into my mind.
Three years later I left with the qualifications of a skilled technician. My success had less to do with me and more to do with the man who trained me. Within a few years I had established a successful small business.
Then I changed direction, enrolled in college to study for the ministry. I entered a whole new world of crowded class rooms, lectures, term papers, and a strange new vocabulary. For three years some of the best teachers told me what to do and how to do it.
Unfortunately, although they could tell me what to do, they could not actually show me how to do it. So, when I accepted a position as pastor of a tiny congregation, things soon went amiss. Theoretically, I knew what to do; I just didn’t have the practical skills. Discouraged and underpaid, I resigned in two years. Life penalizes those who don’t make the grade. I didn’t get another chance, but I learned important lessons: we learn best by doing, and failure sometimes teaches more than success. Had I found a position as an assistant in a larger church, with someone to mentor me, I would have learned by doing. Sadly, I had learned the hard way that an expert in one field might fail in another.
The concept of learning by doing works well in every other trade and profession: mechanics and electricians spend time as apprentices, medical doctors go through an internship. The concept of co-op education practised by some universities and colleges means that students preparing for various careers have an opportunity to gain experience in their chosen field before graduating.
What has that to do with electing a government? Unfortunately, we can’t easily apply apprenticeship to politicians. A few years back, we saw inexperienced people become cabinet ministers in Ontario, then fall like tenpins within weeks. They had no training or experience. So when you prepare to mark your ballot in the federal election, ask, “Do the local candidate and the party leader have the practical training and experience to do the job? Did they spend time in an appropriate apprenticeship?”
If the answer is no, for Canada’s sake, don’t vote for them.