Canadian politics is a lot like soccer; you can go huge amounts of time where it looks like apparently nothing is happening, when in reality it's been a build up to a flurry of activity. Well, lets be fair here, that's probably not an accurate reflection of soccer players; there's more chance that they've planned what's going to happen in advance.
Around here everything just sort of runs by the seat of the pants with the situation, as the Generals like to say during wartime, fluid. In other words things are happening but we're not quite sure what, why or how. Although when politicians use the word fluid in relation to an issue it usually means that they are waiting to see what public reaction will be before they have an opinion. Heaven forbid they commit to anything and take a leadership role.
Maybe this will help any American football fan understand the Canadian version of the game a little better. It's just like our politics, we are allowed to have far more players in motion than you do on any given down. It may not explain the whole single point for missing a field goal bit, or why our field is damn long and wide, but scrambling seems to be ingrained into our social character.
There's two ways that this tactic can be applied in Canadian politics: there's the 'endlessly clarify the position' ploy, and the 'avoid it and hope it goes away' ploy. Both require that politicians be extremely agile and quick on their feet and are used in controversial and delicate situations.
Most commonly both rules will be applied under similar circumstances; completely misunderstanding the mood of the public or not wanting to deal with anything controversial. Not surprisingly endless clarification usually applies in the former while avoiding it and hoping it goes away applies in the latter condition.
Sometimes there are subtle nuances that are applied to these strategies, especially in the case of endless explaining. If it's an issue that threatens to be controversial, but not one they can see anyway of avoiding, what politicians might do is float their proposals in advance to gauge the reaction, then start the modifications and the explanations until they have something that is either acceptable to the public, or everybody is so confused about where they stand it no longer matters what their opinion is.
This, of course, is where unnamed sources and tame reporters come in handy. If you're a smart politician you always have a couple of reporters you have let cultivate you, so that they think they have a source inside the government. You can use them to plant anything you want in the newspapers through the simple expedient of leaking them the information.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Be careful what you ask for, Richard. One of the few good things about the Canadian government is their half-assed way of doing things. That benign neglect of their jobs means that they aren't interfering in your rights and day to day life as much as they could be. Wouldn't you rather have them fecklessly not figuring out ways to prevent same-sex marriage than actually working on ways to ban it?
Dave
2 - Deano
I think you might be missing the point slightly Dave - the government doesn't have a half-assed way of doing things - it is fully assed! The government spends an inordinant amount of time in avoidance, in NOT doing things and in appearing to NOT do things. The concern is while they window-dress for appearances, behind the scenes it is business as usual (i.e. building up whatever party in power's friends list, pushing their own particular policy agenda etc.).
Successive Canadian governments have long-since learned that pork-barrelling is best done back-stage, as is policy-making best done through bureaucratic cut-outs and behind lace curtains. It's like one long never-ending episode of Yes Minister (a great old series, by the way if you ever get the chance to see it on the BBC).
3 - Dave Nalle
I got that, Deano. My point is that the less the government actually does, the better for the people.
Dave
4 - Richard Marcus
Ah if only that were the case Dave, but unfortunately they not only are half-assed, but they are interfereing in spite of themselves. They managed to create a system of day care subsidy that benefits family's with one staty at home parent and high income- and which does nothing to create new subsidized spaces for those who can't afford day care...I only wish they'd maintain their exemplary record of doing nothing and leaving things that were working alone. Ten years ago we had a health Care system that worked (I know you don't like our style of health care, Dave, but still it did work) People who had sufficeint incomes paid some insurance, while others didn't and we had plenty of hosptital beds and doctors. Then the government decided it needed reforming, that there was too much duplication of service,(two doctors doing the same thing-horrors) presto bango we have a health care crises because they took half of it away.
Utah Philips, a very great American story teller, once talked about how he was going to run for President on a platform of doing absolutly nothing. He said the only the times of worse strife for Americans was when they had presidents that actually did something. He promised to sit around, scratch his ass, shoot pool, and do nothing at all the entire day.
Now if we only get the rest of them to promise the same. I doubt it though, the most dangerous ones are the ones who want to to get themselves in the histroy books...then you know you're in trouble.
Richard
5 - RJ Elliott
I really enjoyed this article! :)
6 - Steve
I know that BBC series you speak of, Deano! Great fun to watch (at least if you're into politics anyway lol).
Richard, though the cuts in health care were painful, I think Canadians need to realise (and some have) that we need to live within our means. Having a debt of over 500 billion dollars created over 35 years is far from living within our means. It's taken 7-8 years to pay off hardly 11% of it. We were living on the hog and now we're paying for it, the sooner we pay it off the better it will be for future generations, spending money on interest payments is a waste, the sooner we get rid of the debt the better.
7 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
He said you said I said you said - and now
to clarify that position...
Sounds just like home, Richard. Except that every now and then your folks do a little governing - like those Mounties acthcing all those terrorists...