Is Canberra canny?

Before writing this I ran this argument by a range of people I know in business and education and also gave it the barbecue test. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, no-one disagreed. But several asked if there was, in fact, anyone in the geopolitical world that could be called canny, shrewd or worldly-wise?

This led to several interesting discussions and quite a range of names were put forward as shrewd, wise and canny operators--from Mandela to Merkel to Castro to Elizabeth 2.0 and even Jorge Bergolglio.

Whoa there! Who exactly IS Jorge Bergoglio?

Bergoglio, like Abbott, got the top job just this year and there's something else they have in common. They're both Jesuit-trained thinkers. Better known as Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio, seems to already have captured the imagination of the geopolitical world. He's tamed the notorious Roman Curia. He's brought transparency to the Vatican bank. He's sacked the Bishop of Bling. He's even ordered an unprecedented global poll of Catholic opinion on matters from divorce to gay marriage!

Esquirecover-story (Oct 17) The Most Interesting Man in the World, describes Francis, "He's funny, smart, and fearless. He drives a lousy car and won't wear flashy shoes. He's a masterful politician, a mover of people. He's nice to the gays, except when he's not. He's nice to women, even if the institution he runs often isn't. He's a brilliant corporate turnaround artist, a quiet revolutionary, a fan of Wagner, and Caravaggio, and Dostoyevsky. He might be a charlatan; he might, underneath all the happy talk and symbolic gestures, be more of the same from a hobbled and ancient institution. But whether you're religious or secular, charmed or repelled, you can't deny the man is fascinating in a way no one else on the world stage is right now".

Is Francis canny? Is he shrewd? Is he worldly-wise? I'd say so.

If the Vatican can lift its game perhaps there's hope for us in Canberra, too.