Some post-election musings

Now that 24 hours has gone by, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the election we just had here in Canada. It ended in a dramatic and unexpected way. A party that no one thought had a chance of getting a majority got a majority and the another party that everyone expected to be in contention was decimated. This last is worth lingering on because the party in question, The Liberal Party of Canada, is the most successful political party of any advanced nation. They are the New York Yankees of politics. They have held power for seventy of the last hundred years. In the entire history of Canada there has never been a time before now that they weren't either the government or the official opposition. Today their continued survival is in doubt.

When I think about Canadian politics there is one thought that troubles me and has troubled me for a few decades now (and it is not an issue unique to Canada). And it is the fear of a disproportionate amount of power and influence held by a relatively small group of people who live in Ottawa and Toronto and who have senior positions in the public service, the media and a small set of universities. These people aren’t a conspiracy. They don’t have meetings where they plan their strategy. No, all they have in common is a shared set of values. These values aren’t nefarious or evil and they aren’t a secret. Most anybody could make up a list.

1. They believe that government should be a large and dominant presence in the lives of citizens.
2. They believe in multiculturalism and in having large numbers of immigrants accepted.
3. They believe the arts, universities and scientific research should be heavily funded by government.
4. They hate the idea of a media that is mostly driven by profit and so they support government regulation and subsidization of the media and government support for public broadcasting (the CBC).
5. Related to the above, they want government to use its regulatory power to keep existing media from having to face any serious competition particularly from American sources.
6. They believe the government should tax people not just to get revenue but also to decrease what they see as unfair income distribution.

What really disturbs me about this group is not that they believe what they do. I live in a neighbourhood dominated by these people. I live among and like these people and I believe they have every right to believe the things they do and every right to push and promote these ideas.

But one thing that does disturbs me is that they don’t respect anyone’s right to disagree with them. They demonize everyone who does.

The other thing that really disturbs me about this group is that for the last few elections it has tended to feel like it didn’t much matter what Canadians actually voted for, these people got what they wanted anyway. It felt to me like they were using their power to effectively neutralize any opposing voices.

One of the things this group has been very effective is that the things they don’t care about, don’t show up in the media. And they don’t show up in legislation and regulations drafted by public servants nor do they show up in policy discussions. If there is one thing my experience working in Ottawa has taught me it is that public servants spend a lot of time gumming up the works to prevent certain kinds of policy alternatives from being implemented or even from being explored as options. Finally, there are the universities. These are heavily subsidized and they are powerful gatekeepers as to who gets ahead in Canadian society. Again, they are heavily invested in the above values and kids getting university education never learn that there are respectable arguments on the other sides of these issues.

In recent years, however, the power of these people has declined dramatically. Governments cannot regulate the Internet nearly as effectively as they could regulate television, radio and print media. The rise of reformed Conservative party from which old insiders like the red tories have been expunged and now the NDP replacing the Liberals has dramatically reduced the power of insiders to control politics. And the universities are in a severe crisis brought about by rising costs and their inability to deliver jobs commensurate with the financial and time sacrifices students have to make to get degrees.

That is what I think this last election was really about. This group has lost a lot of its power. This decline has been creeping up on them for years. They haven’t lost all their power but this election signaled a tipping point. You can see it in the media coverage. They were, as always, spinning the results to favour their world view as they always do but they weren’t so much powerless as absolutely irrelevant. You can see it in their attempts to analyze what was happening as the campaign went on. They had no idea what this election was really about or what dynamics were really driving voting patterns. The final result was a complete surprise to them. They simply didn’t have a clue what was happening.

I was talking to a public service manager I know yesterday and her response was equally telling. She was deeply depressed by what had happened but the telling thing is that she never saw it coming.

But it came anyway.