My recent book - an excerpt - On Canadian Governance

 

Contemplating Governance

Some defining propositions.

 

Partisanship should never be taken to the point of detriment to our country, our way of life or our solidarity.

There is nothing that generosity is unable to cure.

We need to support people on their way to the middle class and beyond.

The very best social program is a vibrant economy.

People deserve a clear statement of intent from the government, and to know if that intent is being exercised as communicated, rather than being fed spin.

It is time to redefine PROGRESSIVE to include enterprise AND an open market, progressive values in concert with a vibrant market economy is humanity’s greatest opportunity.

We need to increase the volume and velocity of information flowing to our young people so they can close the applied science gap.

People have a charter right to CHOOSE, choice in how they manage their lives and their family’s lives, choice in how they worship, choice in how and what their children learn, choice in how to manage their health and choice in their life cadence.

In Canada, people speak of the two solitudes, solitudes that have evolved out of English and French influences. There really are many “solitudes”, English and French, urban and rural, first nation and non-first nation, multi-generational and new Canadians, Western Canada and the rest of Canada … the list is extensive. There is a need to build a national narrative that unites us. Building that narrative needs to begin by making it clear to all where our success has come from.

Canada has unmatched natural beauty and biodiversity; it needs to be protected. Canada can be a world leader in building a clean economy. Goals related to a clean economy and environmental protection can occur in concert with a vibrant economy that includes, resource extraction and responsible fossil fuel use.

Regulatory processes in the Canadian government have become obstructive rather than constructive in their application. Regulatory processes must be reliable, when people invest in satisfying regulatory requirements and they do satisfy them – they should be rewarded with certainty.

The world has become increasingly precarious, and the only thing that can be done is to assess risks and prepare. Canada is a wealthy country, yet we are unprepared. We need to move aggressively to prepare by hardening our institutions and infrastructure and properly preparing our population and then drawing on the population’s various skill sets. This is particularly true for our military and civil defence capabilities – we need deterrence, public health, and disaster preparedness.

Institutions in Canada have become ineffective in many instances. It is time to re-examine their usefulness, take what we’ve learned from their existence hitherto, and then apply design thinking to make new or improved entities.

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Purpose

As a keen observer of government, I’ve spent a lot of time and effort studying governance, policy, and economics to understand how to be effective at governing. When an issue arises, I think the issue through and then design a policy response contextualized to my understanding of the law, specifically the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and other related factors. My process is free from political partisanship or reflection on affected interest groups. I simply want the best governance solution for a given jurisdiction. This gives a pristine view of what is optimal, a clean unfettered solution.

I then observe the government as it addresses the same issue. I watch as the political process (partisanship) distorts the issue first, then the solution. I watch special interest groups distort the issue to move policy away from the “best policy” for the whole, to a policy that serves their interests. More often than not, I witness policy that is far less than optimal and fails to meet its objectives.

There is a reality inherent in our modality of governance, that reality is certain cohorts in society can lobby the government more effectively than others. This reality effects a number of ills such as regulatory capture, entrenches and exacerbates inequities, misdirects government resources, effects institutional stagnation, or worse, institutional decadence, obstructs and distorts market function, retards national (jurisdictional) productivity and retards the absorptive capacity of governments and society at large.

Accountability is the most critical element in the operation of any organization. In business, the accountability loop is clear – there is a given business activity, there are a set of metrics and indicators – there is an accounting process and controls. These are monitored over appropriate time frames and provided to the executive in a timely manner to drive the decision-making process. What is in place in our governments lacks this crisp accountability function, and what is in place is totally ineffective. More importantly, however, is that absent crisp reporting, the political process perpetuates flawed policy.

As I observe government action “short-termism” raises its head in almost every area of endeavour that the government undertakes. It is the case that the solution horizon to any given governance challenge far exceeds the election cycle. This reality, in concert with the desire for differentiation between the various “governing” political parties, results in governments pursuing quick solutions so they can take credit within a given election cycle or an incoming government simply resending legislation for political purposes. Further, short-termism frustrates preparedness, there is very little pork barrel opportunity in being prepared for disasters, properly informing, and educating the populace or building an effective national defence program – they are all extremely important, however. There is no area of governance more negatively affected by short-termism than foreign policy. Canada, and the west generally, have failed to take a concerted and long-term track on foreign relations and we are paying a massive price in life and treasure for our tardiness and fickleness.

The core values of society must come to expression in a clear and concise narrative. The narrative feeds the creed of a nation and builds the culture of a people. Shaping that narrative is critical to the stability of a nation. The narrative must stand the test of time and it must resonate with the population. Most importantly, it must serve the nation. Canada’s narrative, and the West's generally, is fragmented. It has been run through a shredder consisting of polarizing political discourse, thought silos facilitated by new technologies, foreign actors with deviant intent and the emergence of cancel culture.

There is no clear distinction, I believe, between the government and the economy. The economy is the substrate of governance and governance can enhance or destroy the economy. Optimizing the harmonics between the two is a delicate process. Governance is essentially an exercise in behavioural economics. Many in government lack an understanding of relevant economic imperatives, while others see the economy as antithetical to a good society. No matter where you are in the world, under what type of government – supply and demand are in play, supply and demand and the full basket of economic laws are as real as gravity.

One points out all these challenges and the reader is likely to be of the impression that the author is anti-government or sees scant opportunity for the government to improve. The crux of governance is that good policy does good things and bad policy does bad things. As problematic as effecting good governance is, in Canada and many of our western counterparts, we are sitting at the pinnacle of human existence. What has gotten us here is a market economy and social activism that finds expression in government policy. It is odd to consider that society at large does not fully appreciate how miraculous the market and democracy are, the importance of the rule of law as it relates to human rights, and how fragile it all is. The forces of entropy are omnipresent and lurking to challenge order every second of every day. Therefore, it is critical that these forces are brought into resolution so they can be effectively confronted. 

I quake at the prospect that our generation’s failure to maintain the world order handed to us by the great generation. I quake when I see governance heading down a warn path of error, absent an aft glance at history where the answers reside. I quake at the prospect that we’ll meet with a violent world due to government’s indifference to critical issues like the cause of freedom and the cause of peace. If we continue to error, as we are doing in many ways, the people making the errors, people who have lived through peace and prosperity never experienced before in human history – will leave in our wake a place of deprivation for our grandchildren, or worse, our grandchildren will find themselves with a rifle in their hands. I put pen to paper in this book to perhaps effect a ripple in a pond that might grow a wave of influence, moving us to a place of good and reason and peace and prosperity.  

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