Education
Minister Dale Kirby is “surprised that about half the people who attended a
consultant session on the future of libraries in Newfoundland and Labrador
walked out in frustration”, according to the CBC. Kirby shouldn't be “surprised” at all. It was an appropriate response by a public aghast that politics is so badly broken in this province.
When an
elected Government sends out an accounting firm to perform a role politicians
are expected to do daily — on a completely non-accounting issue, one that has no technical underpinnings — you know you have elected the “B-Team”.
Don’t
misunderstand. It’s not as if we had the option of electing an “A-Team”. That wasn’t
on offer by any Party. But the Liberals are so oblivious to the purpose of
politics, and their role in it, that we are left to worry not just they are second-rate but that they are a team for which the “B” stands for “bumpkins”. The terminology is
deliberate. It refers to those who are more ignorant than uneducated.
This Government
should have realized that it miscalculated on the library closures in the first
place; that the attempt to save $1 million — when the real goal ought to have
been saving several hundred million — was not just silly, it detracted from achieving the larger target.
Politicians
are elected to be the voice of their constituents, to hear their concerns, to
elevate their priorities. Members on behalf of their constituency, Ministers in
their particular public policy area, are expected to influence Government
decisions through the mechanisms of the House of Assembly and — more pragmatically,
and on a timely basis — in Caucus and Cabinet.
The issue isn’t
just about public libraries; this is simply how politics should be practiced. It
is true that MHAs spend a great deal of time dealing with local community councils and constituents’
personal issues — breaking through bureaucratic inertia and untying red tape.
But that is not their primary role.
The role of
a politician is to talk to people, to listen to them, to make assessments of
public policy matters and how policy changes might relate to the broader
society. This is the essence of representation, of democracy in action — the
elected, the people, and the democratic institutions operating within a
continuous feedback loop.
How should
the discourse manifest?
Primarily,
it should be reflected in the decisions Government makes. Good judgments occur
when sensible, careful, and experienced people have listened, made thoughtful
assessments, and shared them with the policy-making institutions of which they
are also a part.
The process
which Education Minister Dale Kirby has introduced to reassess public libraries
has trashed this essential political process. He is not just burning up money unnecessarily — on high priced consultants — he is subverting the very mechanism on which a
working democracy is founded. He is facilitating a process in which he — and
his elected colleagues — are allowed to hide from public view and from engaging
people face-to-face.
That Premier
Ball is allowing this travesty of politics to take place, in front of his own
eyes, is a measure of his own political sophistication. On issues such as this,
we shouldn’t have to ask: what is the calibre of “judgment” at the Cabinet
Table? But we must.
Equally, we might inquire: why wasn’t the idea trampled
upon the very minute it was uttered? Are the handful who claim to have a clue —
Perry Trimper, Cathy Bennett, Gerry Byrne — just watching as Ball and their other Cabinet
colleagues become more deeply mired in a political sink-hole from which there
is no escape?
When a Government
can’t clear a simple — but essential — issue of public libraries, costing a
mere $1 million, as it burns up the political capital the Government needs for
far more complex and contentious issues, how can we possibly expect them to
make good decisions on the Budget deficit, on appointing an expert Panel to
review the North Spur, or even to provide oversight on a runaway “boondoggle”?
The Ball
Government is not operating at a very high level. And it consistently shows. Some
Ministers may be smart and well-educated. But a Cabinet whose judgment is so
poor that it will let an accounting firm supplant an essential political
obligation — as the elected Minister responsible hides — suggests nothing more than a “B-Team”.
Bumpkins —
all of them.
