New Canadian Lexicon: A Bulte

Sometimes one has to wonder how words get into the language.

Now often as one who is Canadian, we tend to think that the English language extends to the American lexicon of our MS Word dictionaries but for those few words like colour or centre.

Then comes a situation where there is nothing to describe a situation best but to use the name of the individual surrounding the situation to describe future situations that are similar.

I propose the word "bulte" to be added to the Canadian lingua franca. It will hopefully be a rare word but nevertheless very precise in its use.

A "bulte" describes a politician who is caught accepting money from people they have pushed laws for against the best interests of the people they are elected to represent.

The best part of a good bulte is that for a lengthy period of time, a good many opponents of the law the "bulte" pushes don't understand why the "bulte" is not listening to any good arguments but is insistent that this is good for the opponents, while refusing to reply directly to any concerns.

Now the best part of the bulte is that when the bulte is discovered to have money in their pockets keeping their electoral chances alive, the bulte says that no amount of money would affect their integrity, while normally their party leader says "Return the money, or resign".

When that does not happen, this is the worst "bulte" situation because it questions the leadership itself and its commitment to democracy: governance by the people, for the people. When the worst bulte situation arises, you hope you have an electorate that is widely aware of the situation and tosses the bulte with the party leader out. If they accept the "bulte" and the party leader, you will be knee deep in "bulte" everywhere and be on your own.

Now a "beauty bulte" in Bob'n'Doug terms is when even when the party leader is on vacation, and the "bulte" is left on their own, with all manner of pomp, and ignorance of any direct dissent, the "beauty bulte" goes on to get some more money very publicly.

The last frame of reference we find is the "bite the bulte" where the people who paid the "bulte" wake up and realize that their cover with the "bulte" is gone, and they are tainted by association with the "bulte." In that case, they have to "bite the bulte", stop the money flows, and profess an ethical line.

In moral times, the government would have a law on the books, called tampering with an elected official, have the RCMP put the white collars involved on probation, and the self-professed bulte behind bars.