Every one of us who has been blessed with good eyesight can appreciate the value of being able to see clearly. Enjoying the beauty of God's creation inspires us. Reading a good book informs us. Being able to see the people and objects in our path allows us to navigate easily, function smoothly, avoid pitfalls and reach our goals. When we see someone with a visual impairment we are humbled and reminded of the great advantages of sight. The ability to see brings with it responsibilities. The petulant and defensive Pharisees challenged Jesus with this question: "Are we blind too?" Jesus told them, "If you were truly blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But now you claim you see; therefore, your sin remains."  When we see danger coming to anyone, we have a responsibility to warn them. If we fail to act on the information we have, if we fail to act prudently to avoid the dangers we can see, if we fail to warn others we become guilty. Those who can see and cover their eyes or close one eye or look the other way are guilty of misleading others. When parents do this we call it negligence. When businesses do it we call it fraud. When politicians do it we call it corruption.  The Bible calls it wilful ignorance. As one cheeky critic paraphrased the concept, he said it means "dumb on purpose". There's a lot of that going around lately. Once you begin the practice of turning a blind eye to problems, it becomes a habit which is very hard to break. This is a critical flaw when leading the government of a country. I recently attended a symposium in Ottawa entitled "Canada's Immigration & Refugee System: What's wrong & how to fix it."  What an eye opener! The very learned panel made it abundantly clear that this system is broken, abused, and costly; it's endangering Canadians and our government willfully refuses to address the problem. The reason?  It's all about wooing blocks of voters-basing policies on special interests rather than what's best for this country and its future-which should be the guiding principle. One of the panelists, James Bissett, former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania and High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago stated, "Our Canadian Immigration system has gone off the rails!" Julie Taub, an immigration lawyer practicing in Ottawa who has more than ten years of experience in Canadian immigration law says, "The Immigration and Refugee Act implemented in 2002 is innately flawed and has created a dangerously dysfunctional immigration system in Canada." Then again, "Canada has trivialized our refugee program...our laws are fraud-enabling!" Joseph C. Ben-Ami, president of the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies (CCPS) who hosted the symposium stated "if CCPS can discuss the problems with immigration and discuss how to fix it - why can't parliament?" Because our government has turned a blind eye to it! When it comes to running a country, the people deserve better.  Sinking us another $80 billion in debt in two years when they promised surplus before the election! Were the PM and Finance Minister unable to see the signs of imminent global economic collapse? If not, it begs the question of their competence to lead a nation of 30+ million people, and $1.5 trillion GNP... if they didn't know, they don't deserve the office. What if they did  know? What if they saw this coming? What if they turned a blind eye and in wilful ignorance pretended not to know? That's even worse. What if they are lying to us now? Their rosy predictions of 2008 are long gone but how can we believe their upbeat predictions for the future? When it comes to establishing our national finances and other important policies on secure footings, there is no alternative to integrity. That means looking at all the issues with both eyes open and telling it like it is. For Better Solution click here for our CHP platform.