Loved this piece. Sarcastic humour combined with real information is a balm to my tortured news-reading soul. As a former federal communications professional, and before that a journalist, I laughed out loud at “…a process begins whereby dozens of people Working From Home figure out a way to suck your brains out through your nose using a ceremonial ceramic straw.” Keep the coverage coming!
Same same same, but I cackled at this part (as a member of the army of the powerless ;)
“This response, built up layer after layer by nameless armies of the powerless like the Pyramids themselves, managed to acknowledge the accuracy of my request while providing no actual information. It was the sound of one hand clapping, performed by committee.”
I too navigated that misshapen (and often ‘leaky’) gov communications boat during my career, and laughed out loud at Paul’s description. My favourite description of many tasks assigned to us as communicators was “making chicken salad from chicken sh*t”. Worked with many excellent people, but often felt the need to take a bath in carbolic acid after a day in the trenches.
I certainly hope not. Issues with transparency, governance, and ethics seem go befall each government to varying degrees. The Harper Gov's litany of such was a mile long.
What they actually try to DO as a gov't matters, and Trudeau's has made real gains in climate action, feminism, and helping poorer families, to name a few. Conservatives are great at complaining but their policy prescriptions are a disaster.
You don't like mealy-mouthed comms answers? In Harper's era it was no better, if anything arguably worse: bureaucratic comms were nakedly used as political propaganda, and the PM very rarely took questions, and when he did they were vetted in advance and no follow-ups were allowed.
Things aren't great now but they were a lot worse and will be again if Poillievre wins.
At least there was economic competency at the heart of Harpers government. Not always well executed for various reasons but at least not going backwards unlike this current bunch of jokers. Deficit, declining productivity bad then worse now, vilification of an economic sector worth 12% of gdp, declining per capita GDP, reintroduction of industrial policy never mind wholesale intrusion into provincial authority and resurgence of Western allienation and a foreign policy fit for Pollyanna.
I used to work in policy in the public service. I once had to draft a reply to an MP's written question. The subject was innocuous, the question very straight forward ("did officials meet with X representatives about X project" basically). I got the info, wrote a succinct factual answer, got it approved by the Assistant Deputy Minister, and sent it off. A couple weeks later I was informed that the Minister's office had thrown out my answer and replaced it with their own. The new Orwellian language said:
"This Government has demonstrated its clear commitment to openness and transparency. We believe in evidence-based policymaking and meaningful consultation with Canadians. Meetings with key stakeholders and experts help to inform the policy development process. For a listing of lobbyist interactions, please visit the Registry of Lobbyists at lobbycanada.gc.ca"
So....yeah. They can't help themselves. Even when the subject has no controversy, they dodge and duck and dip and dive and dodge. It's maddening. And do I expect a Poilievre government to be any more forthcoming? No.
I will note that when I saw that the government had tabled an answer to a question that was based on my journalism, I wrote to the CPC leader's office and MP Wagantall's office this morning asking them to forward the government's response. So far neither has replied.
Thank you Paul for this update. Real shame that the deaths of 57,905 of our fellow Canadians (Health-Infobase count as of January 30th) are the subject of a private and limited focus of external inquiry, despite the credentials of the lead inquisitor. I remain steadfast in my call for a #COVIDRoyalCommission: https://www.ottawalife.com/article/mistakes-have-been-made-lessons-must-be-learned/. On the positive side, questions on the Order Paper work and MPs can make a difference, process matters ... if only human lives and saving them in the "next one" mattered too!
Paul has done an excellent job chronicling the failures of government communications. But there is at least one area where transparency not only exists, but is blossoming: publicly-available data representing government operations. As I've written (https://theaudit.substack.com/p/pulling-your-weight-in-your-civic), governments at all levels have been busy publishing truckloads of data representing official policies along with their outcomes. And, for a data geek like me, it's a thing of beauty!
Yes indeed. For example, Statistics Canada publishes The Daily every ... er... day. It contains the usual economic, social and cultural data, but also the results of many analytic studies. Some of them do become the basis for journalists' stories, but not enough of them, in my opinion. Of course, Statistics Canada is still pretty much independent of politics, and generate generally unbiased information. Unbiased, but not necessarily all that accurate, as they depend on others for their inputs, and as the old saying goes, garbage in garbage out.
Which brings me to ChatGPT and other LLMs. We know that these can be quite useful, but also detached from reality -- as a lawyer found out when a 10-page brief he submitted to a judge turned out to cite seven (out of ten) fictitious cases.
It's not just Statistics Canada: I've been finding treasures on international.gc.ca and, of course, deep down into canada.ca. I suspect it's about more than legacy journalists' disinterest, the sheer volume of data is nearly overwhelming.
GPT has gotten a lot better in the hallucination department. But even factoring in the time it takes to confirm the results we're getting, it's still a powerful too.
Agreed, I used Statistics Canada as an example, not an exclusive source, because I have found that one can develop a relationship with Statistical Canada analysts and discuss with them (and sometimes even be invited to their internal conferences). Another source where this is possible is Bank of Canada -- but not Finance Canada. Of course, these relationships take a lot of time, and you must put in some time so as to seem that you know what you are talking about. I'm sure that the typical journalist doesn't have time for that.
By the way, I'm working on parsing Global Affairs Canada spending right now and I'm looking at the CSV from their "Statistical Report on International Assistance 2021-2022". There are two columns with spending amounts: 'GAC Total Budget (to verify)' and 'International Assistance' and I can't figure out what their relationship is. Their sums are very different. I contacted GAC a few days ago for clarification but haven't heard back. Any ideas?
I would note that Dr. Nemer has, though the Twitter/X account of the Chief Science Advisor's office (@ChiefSciCan), tweeted a number of references to future pandemic planning and is playing a leadership role in international pandemic preparedness by chairing the "100 Days Mission Steering Group". See for example: https://x.com/IPPSecretariat/status/1750101298857267666?s=20
Despite the enormous heads-up Canada was given by the original SARS outbreak 20 years ago, we were not prepared. There was a good initial response to that in 2003 (see the first of David Naylor's reports (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/learning-sars-renewal-public-health-canada.html) but preparedness is a long game and in politics synapses quickly dissolve, which is why our mask and other stockpiles weren't replenished, etc. I'm not sure we, as a society, have learned much from the sucker punch of Covid, unfortunately. What government is going to stir the wrath of people with lock-downs the next time, despite there effectiveness early on (clearly, this is a blunt tool and needs careful application - but we've probably lost that as an option)? I hope Sir Mark's report is widely read, but even if so, it'll be put on a shelf and forgotten before the next pandemic threat. It will also, no doubt be attacked by those who also think vaccines are worse than the virus and de-wormer can miraculously substitute for induced immunity. We are so [expletive]!
Thanks for this, Jim. I see that the Hundred Days group is (a) public (b) serious (c) assisted by the Gates Foundation, which will give some people conniptions, but consistent with the foundation's excellent track record.
This is the way of the world. Dr. Walport must wonder what the hell is going on, since he lives in a country whose own COVID after-action process has been entirely public and transparent. And I don't often chat with Dr. Nemer, but I wonder whether she's noticed that this international exercise is orders of magnitude more transparent than the one she helped launch at home.
Can't comment on transparency of this process as it's beyond my insights as an interested observer (though I do know our Access to Information process is an embarrassment) but I can see why this committee might want to run under the radar given the rabid politicization of Covid. Damned if you do or damned if you don't. No doubt the rumours of the committee being part of the Gates/WEFs plan to suppress freedom are rattling through the flat earth society affiliates as we type. I would note (being an ex-pat) that the UK government, per se, has hardly been transparent in their responses to the various panels - with miraculously and conveniently lost phones, deleted WhatsApp messages and completely clueless appearances. But you are correct, we should be better than that circus of failure.
We are talking Omicron, not Alpha Beta or Delta, now, which is why would follow what they did, now. Also, those 'covid' deaths are not correct, I work in healthcare.
I blogged the pandemic to stay busy, followed all those stories, and yes, the Swedish approach went bad in a matter of weeks, as you'd expect. Their death-counts were ahead of other Scandanavians, especially, but also worse than Canada's, the whole time, every wave.
Sweden came in for extra snark when I did a grand worldometers summary showing how much we beat Israel, Germany, and nearly every Canadian province beat nearly every US State.
My end-of-pandemic 2023 conclusion, though, is that it wasn't just masks or vaccines - we did better than places that did respect those, like Israel - Canada did awesomely well because of our whole culture, our respect for each other, that Corporal-Benton-Fraser politeness: our high vaccination rate and decent masking were just additional symptoms of the larger consideration we offer each other.
It showed up far more in the "under 50 pandemic", the deaths of those still out in the community, still working and raising kids, and not that vulnerable. The oldsters could shut-in, the under-50s had to face the virus and still work. And SEVEN TIMES MORE YOUNG AMERICANS DIED THAN CANADIANS:
I think in the early days the over influence of Anders Tegnell was clear. One can argue that, at the time, the idea of herd immunity was reasonable. Much like the infamous Great Barrington Declaration it was, at first sight, a contrarian but possibly plausable approach. That was deflated by data of reinfection and rapid viral variant emergence (let alone long COVID). One could argue that lockdowns were also less effective thanhoped (the idea from some that we could "break" transmission didn't account for zoonotic reservoirs) but the health care system was perilously close to collapse - everywhere. The curve had to be bent and even the UK government came to that conclusion with a second lockdown. But the most damning data is shown in excess deaths. This counters arguments of co-morbidity, misdiagnosis, under/overcounting, etc. Sweden did not do well. Though one can critique Wikipedia, this is an insightful summary of Sweden's performance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Sweden
The government is essentially doing a self assessment via an external audit. They have every right to wait to get the findings and the recommendations and then to respond publically to the study and its findings,. This is common practice in governments. Otherwise they waste time dealing with the findings which are usually sensationalized by the media rather than moving forward to address the recommendations.
The media, which has turned away from good analysis to covering politics as if it were People Magazine, needs to take responsibility for their role in creating the governments we have.
What media? There are 300 members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. I am the only one who's shown any interest in this issue at all. And can you point to the article in People Magazine that most closely resembles anything I've written in the past 30 years?
Can you explain what you mean by "this issue". Do you mean the review or transparency generally?
While you are a member of the media I don't understand why you assume that I am pointing the finger at you. If I didn't respect your work,I would not susbcribe.
An example of what I am referring to could be the lack of analysis by the Star, The Globe , CTV or the CBC regarding the tactics of PP and Ford which follow authoritarian tactics as described by Madeline Albright in her book on the growth of fascism, Timothy Snyder on tyranny or Anne Applebaum's last two books on the fall of democracy and the seduction of authoritarianism .
There seems are few journalists who understand the public service and what makes for an effective, independent public sector.
Our political class is still stuck in neo liberalism doctrine which decried governments and argued that only the private sector is competent, The IMF...one of its perpetrators ,,,admitted around 2016 that that Friedman's economic theories did not deliver.
Yet successive governments have gouged the public sector of its experts or sidelined them and developed policy without their input. Instead political actors make policy decisions without any appreciation for what evidence shows as most effective policy interventions nor do they understand the importance of planning for effective implementation and evaluation to ensure continuous improvement.
And now Ford is erasing the line between a professional public service and a politicized public sector where the Premier , Ministers, and Mayors can appoint friends or fellow travelers to pubic positions regardless of their qualifications. Commissions, Boards, Tribunals have all lost qualified members and indeed the last piece of legislation blanantly removed qualifications needed for an important certification program for construction companies.
None of this covered by the media. If I am missing examples...please do correct me.
Sir, you write, in part, "... a future generation of political staffers who are, for the moment, baristas! ..."
I cannot decide whether you are at your best with irony, (polite but distinct) sarcasm or just allowing the facts to speak for themselves ("Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts," intoned Joe Friday).
In any event, today - as every day - you are at your best. Thank you, Sir; this, this is why I subscribe and why I feel that your subscription price is an absolute bargain. [Really, really, take that as a hint!]
The Canadian Government owes the Canadian Public, a full judicial enquiry into the Government of Canada's response to COVID 19, in order to update the Pandemic Playbook ( which we never followed).
Yes, Michael, I agree that they owe us that enquiry. And, Sir, be advised that they will pay up just as soon as they have repaid all the monies that they have borrowed during their term in office.
My suggestion: graph, over time, on a departmental and managerial level, the average response time, and the number of employees in "Communications" as a distinct department.
"Communications" .... doesn't. Was our joke about them; they do not communicate; they gatekeep the staff with the data - many of whom would love to talk your ear off about their job.
I think the graph would show that addition of more "Communications" staff is an effort to restrict information flow, not facilitate it.
Maybe Paul it is time for some News organization to publish and have a daily sections where they can post dumb and irrelevant replies from the govt of the day to FOIs and other questions asked of them, by reporters and everyday Canadian’s.
Iam not targeting the LPC although they have perfected it but any govt agency or political party, it could be in the comic sections.
Loved this piece. Sarcastic humour combined with real information is a balm to my tortured news-reading soul. As a former federal communications professional, and before that a journalist, I laughed out loud at “…a process begins whereby dozens of people Working From Home figure out a way to suck your brains out through your nose using a ceremonial ceramic straw.” Keep the coverage coming!
Same same same, but I cackled at this part (as a member of the army of the powerless ;)
“This response, built up layer after layer by nameless armies of the powerless like the Pyramids themselves, managed to acknowledge the accuracy of my request while providing no actual information. It was the sound of one hand clapping, performed by committee.”
I too navigated that misshapen (and often ‘leaky’) gov communications boat during my career, and laughed out loud at Paul’s description. My favourite description of many tasks assigned to us as communicators was “making chicken salad from chicken sh*t”. Worked with many excellent people, but often felt the need to take a bath in carbolic acid after a day in the trenches.
The lack of transparency, lack of good governance and lack of ethics will be the legacy of this Trudeau Liberal government. Disgraceful. #JustinJustGo
I certainly hope not. Issues with transparency, governance, and ethics seem go befall each government to varying degrees. The Harper Gov's litany of such was a mile long.
What they actually try to DO as a gov't matters, and Trudeau's has made real gains in climate action, feminism, and helping poorer families, to name a few. Conservatives are great at complaining but their policy prescriptions are a disaster.
You don't like mealy-mouthed comms answers? In Harper's era it was no better, if anything arguably worse: bureaucratic comms were nakedly used as political propaganda, and the PM very rarely took questions, and when he did they were vetted in advance and no follow-ups were allowed.
Things aren't great now but they were a lot worse and will be again if Poillievre wins.
At least there was economic competency at the heart of Harpers government. Not always well executed for various reasons but at least not going backwards unlike this current bunch of jokers. Deficit, declining productivity bad then worse now, vilification of an economic sector worth 12% of gdp, declining per capita GDP, reintroduction of industrial policy never mind wholesale intrusion into provincial authority and resurgence of Western allienation and a foreign policy fit for Pollyanna.
AMEN !!!
I used to work in policy in the public service. I once had to draft a reply to an MP's written question. The subject was innocuous, the question very straight forward ("did officials meet with X representatives about X project" basically). I got the info, wrote a succinct factual answer, got it approved by the Assistant Deputy Minister, and sent it off. A couple weeks later I was informed that the Minister's office had thrown out my answer and replaced it with their own. The new Orwellian language said:
"This Government has demonstrated its clear commitment to openness and transparency. We believe in evidence-based policymaking and meaningful consultation with Canadians. Meetings with key stakeholders and experts help to inform the policy development process. For a listing of lobbyist interactions, please visit the Registry of Lobbyists at lobbycanada.gc.ca"
So....yeah. They can't help themselves. Even when the subject has no controversy, they dodge and duck and dip and dive and dodge. It's maddening. And do I expect a Poilievre government to be any more forthcoming? No.
I will note that when I saw that the government had tabled an answer to a question that was based on my journalism, I wrote to the CPC leader's office and MP Wagantall's office this morning asking them to forward the government's response. So far neither has replied.
Update: neither the leader's office nor the MP's office ever replied.
Bring It Home (to PW's inbox)
Yup. And then they send it back to you and ask you to sign off.
I wish they’d sent it back to me because I would have refused. But no, the staffers rewrote it and sent it back to the MP all on their own.
Thank you Paul for this update. Real shame that the deaths of 57,905 of our fellow Canadians (Health-Infobase count as of January 30th) are the subject of a private and limited focus of external inquiry, despite the credentials of the lead inquisitor. I remain steadfast in my call for a #COVIDRoyalCommission: https://www.ottawalife.com/article/mistakes-have-been-made-lessons-must-be-learned/. On the positive side, questions on the Order Paper work and MPs can make a difference, process matters ... if only human lives and saving them in the "next one" mattered too!
Paul has done an excellent job chronicling the failures of government communications. But there is at least one area where transparency not only exists, but is blossoming: publicly-available data representing government operations. As I've written (https://theaudit.substack.com/p/pulling-your-weight-in-your-civic), governments at all levels have been busy publishing truckloads of data representing official policies along with their outcomes. And, for a data geek like me, it's a thing of beauty!
This is really interesting. I've subscribed to your Substack and I encourage others to follow the link to your post. Thanks!
Thanks so much! I hope that I'll be able to provide even a small fraction of the value you do for Canada's public discourse.
Yes indeed. For example, Statistics Canada publishes The Daily every ... er... day. It contains the usual economic, social and cultural data, but also the results of many analytic studies. Some of them do become the basis for journalists' stories, but not enough of them, in my opinion. Of course, Statistics Canada is still pretty much independent of politics, and generate generally unbiased information. Unbiased, but not necessarily all that accurate, as they depend on others for their inputs, and as the old saying goes, garbage in garbage out.
Which brings me to ChatGPT and other LLMs. We know that these can be quite useful, but also detached from reality -- as a lawyer found out when a 10-page brief he submitted to a judge turned out to cite seven (out of ten) fictitious cases.
It's not just Statistics Canada: I've been finding treasures on international.gc.ca and, of course, deep down into canada.ca. I suspect it's about more than legacy journalists' disinterest, the sheer volume of data is nearly overwhelming.
GPT has gotten a lot better in the hallucination department. But even factoring in the time it takes to confirm the results we're getting, it's still a powerful too.
Agreed, I used Statistics Canada as an example, not an exclusive source, because I have found that one can develop a relationship with Statistical Canada analysts and discuss with them (and sometimes even be invited to their internal conferences). Another source where this is possible is Bank of Canada -- but not Finance Canada. Of course, these relationships take a lot of time, and you must put in some time so as to seem that you know what you are talking about. I'm sure that the typical journalist doesn't have time for that.
100%.
By the way, I'm working on parsing Global Affairs Canada spending right now and I'm looking at the CSV from their "Statistical Report on International Assistance 2021-2022". There are two columns with spending amounts: 'GAC Total Budget (to verify)' and 'International Assistance' and I can't figure out what their relationship is. Their sums are very different. I contacted GAC a few days ago for clarification but haven't heard back. Any ideas?
I would note that Dr. Nemer has, though the Twitter/X account of the Chief Science Advisor's office (@ChiefSciCan), tweeted a number of references to future pandemic planning and is playing a leadership role in international pandemic preparedness by chairing the "100 Days Mission Steering Group". See for example: https://x.com/IPPSecretariat/status/1750101298857267666?s=20
Despite the enormous heads-up Canada was given by the original SARS outbreak 20 years ago, we were not prepared. There was a good initial response to that in 2003 (see the first of David Naylor's reports (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/learning-sars-renewal-public-health-canada.html) but preparedness is a long game and in politics synapses quickly dissolve, which is why our mask and other stockpiles weren't replenished, etc. I'm not sure we, as a society, have learned much from the sucker punch of Covid, unfortunately. What government is going to stir the wrath of people with lock-downs the next time, despite there effectiveness early on (clearly, this is a blunt tool and needs careful application - but we've probably lost that as an option)? I hope Sir Mark's report is widely read, but even if so, it'll be put on a shelf and forgotten before the next pandemic threat. It will also, no doubt be attacked by those who also think vaccines are worse than the virus and de-wormer can miraculously substitute for induced immunity. We are so [expletive]!
Thanks for this, Jim. I see that the Hundred Days group is (a) public (b) serious (c) assisted by the Gates Foundation, which will give some people conniptions, but consistent with the foundation's excellent track record.
https://ippsecretariat.org/about-us/
This is the way of the world. Dr. Walport must wonder what the hell is going on, since he lives in a country whose own COVID after-action process has been entirely public and transparent. And I don't often chat with Dr. Nemer, but I wonder whether she's noticed that this international exercise is orders of magnitude more transparent than the one she helped launch at home.
Can't comment on transparency of this process as it's beyond my insights as an interested observer (though I do know our Access to Information process is an embarrassment) but I can see why this committee might want to run under the radar given the rabid politicization of Covid. Damned if you do or damned if you don't. No doubt the rumours of the committee being part of the Gates/WEFs plan to suppress freedom are rattling through the flat earth society affiliates as we type. I would note (being an ex-pat) that the UK government, per se, has hardly been transparent in their responses to the various panels - with miraculously and conveniently lost phones, deleted WhatsApp messages and completely clueless appearances. But you are correct, we should be better than that circus of failure.
Masks and the vaccine didn't do their job, so I would take Sweden's approach next time!
Sweden population (2020): 10.42 million Covid deaths: 27,142
Canada population (2020): 38.03 million Covid deaths: 57,905
Canadian deaths if we had the death rate of Sweden: 99,060. I choose Canada.
We are talking Omicron, not Alpha Beta or Delta, now, which is why would follow what they did, now. Also, those 'covid' deaths are not correct, I work in healthcare.
Ah, the amazing retroscope. FYI, so do I.
Reference: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
I blogged the pandemic to stay busy, followed all those stories, and yes, the Swedish approach went bad in a matter of weeks, as you'd expect. Their death-counts were ahead of other Scandanavians, especially, but also worse than Canada's, the whole time, every wave.
Sweden came in for extra snark when I did a grand worldometers summary showing how much we beat Israel, Germany, and nearly every Canadian province beat nearly every US State.
http://brander.ca/c19/#statesprovinces
My end-of-pandemic 2023 conclusion, though, is that it wasn't just masks or vaccines - we did better than places that did respect those, like Israel - Canada did awesomely well because of our whole culture, our respect for each other, that Corporal-Benton-Fraser politeness: our high vaccination rate and decent masking were just additional symptoms of the larger consideration we offer each other.
It showed up far more in the "under 50 pandemic", the deaths of those still out in the community, still working and raising kids, and not that vulnerable. The oldsters could shut-in, the under-50s had to face the virus and still work. And SEVEN TIMES MORE YOUNG AMERICANS DIED THAN CANADIANS:
http://brander.ca/cccc#dyingyoungsumup
Canada was, let me stress this, *awesome* in the pandemic.
I think in the early days the over influence of Anders Tegnell was clear. One can argue that, at the time, the idea of herd immunity was reasonable. Much like the infamous Great Barrington Declaration it was, at first sight, a contrarian but possibly plausable approach. That was deflated by data of reinfection and rapid viral variant emergence (let alone long COVID). One could argue that lockdowns were also less effective thanhoped (the idea from some that we could "break" transmission didn't account for zoonotic reservoirs) but the health care system was perilously close to collapse - everywhere. The curve had to be bent and even the UK government came to that conclusion with a second lockdown. But the most damning data is shown in excess deaths. This counters arguments of co-morbidity, misdiagnosis, under/overcounting, etc. Sweden did not do well. Though one can critique Wikipedia, this is an insightful summary of Sweden's performance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Sweden
The government is essentially doing a self assessment via an external audit. They have every right to wait to get the findings and the recommendations and then to respond publically to the study and its findings,. This is common practice in governments. Otherwise they waste time dealing with the findings which are usually sensationalized by the media rather than moving forward to address the recommendations.
The media, which has turned away from good analysis to covering politics as if it were People Magazine, needs to take responsibility for their role in creating the governments we have.
What media? There are 300 members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. I am the only one who's shown any interest in this issue at all. And can you point to the article in People Magazine that most closely resembles anything I've written in the past 30 years?
Can you explain what you mean by "this issue". Do you mean the review or transparency generally?
While you are a member of the media I don't understand why you assume that I am pointing the finger at you. If I didn't respect your work,I would not susbcribe.
An example of what I am referring to could be the lack of analysis by the Star, The Globe , CTV or the CBC regarding the tactics of PP and Ford which follow authoritarian tactics as described by Madeline Albright in her book on the growth of fascism, Timothy Snyder on tyranny or Anne Applebaum's last two books on the fall of democracy and the seduction of authoritarianism .
There seems are few journalists who understand the public service and what makes for an effective, independent public sector.
Our political class is still stuck in neo liberalism doctrine which decried governments and argued that only the private sector is competent, The IMF...one of its perpetrators ,,,admitted around 2016 that that Friedman's economic theories did not deliver.
Yet successive governments have gouged the public sector of its experts or sidelined them and developed policy without their input. Instead political actors make policy decisions without any appreciation for what evidence shows as most effective policy interventions nor do they understand the importance of planning for effective implementation and evaluation to ensure continuous improvement.
And now Ford is erasing the line between a professional public service and a politicized public sector where the Premier , Ministers, and Mayors can appoint friends or fellow travelers to pubic positions regardless of their qualifications. Commissions, Boards, Tribunals have all lost qualified members and indeed the last piece of legislation blanantly removed qualifications needed for an important certification program for construction companies.
None of this covered by the media. If I am missing examples...please do correct me.
I think you may have a wee bit too much time on your hands, dear, run along and play!
how condescending
Get over it!
Brilliant Sir! I no longer need to answer.
You never answered in the first place.
I was referring to another person's answer.
Sir Humphrey would be pleased.
Sir, you write, in part, "... a future generation of political staffers who are, for the moment, baristas! ..."
I cannot decide whether you are at your best with irony, (polite but distinct) sarcasm or just allowing the facts to speak for themselves ("Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts," intoned Joe Friday).
In any event, today - as every day - you are at your best. Thank you, Sir; this, this is why I subscribe and why I feel that your subscription price is an absolute bargain. [Really, really, take that as a hint!]
I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more
I would re-up my subscription for the Commodore Decker reference alone.
The Canadian Government owes the Canadian Public, a full judicial enquiry into the Government of Canada's response to COVID 19, in order to update the Pandemic Playbook ( which we never followed).
Yes, Michael, I agree that they owe us that enquiry. And, Sir, be advised that they will pay up just as soon as they have repaid all the monies that they have borrowed during their term in office.
My suggestion: graph, over time, on a departmental and managerial level, the average response time, and the number of employees in "Communications" as a distinct department.
"Communications" .... doesn't. Was our joke about them; they do not communicate; they gatekeep the staff with the data - many of whom would love to talk your ear off about their job.
I think the graph would show that addition of more "Communications" staff is an effort to restrict information flow, not facilitate it.
Maybe Paul it is time for some News organization to publish and have a daily sections where they can post dumb and irrelevant replies from the govt of the day to FOIs and other questions asked of them, by reporters and everyday Canadian’s.
Iam not targeting the LPC although they have perfected it but any govt agency or political party, it could be in the comic sections.
"Terrible maddening beauty ". Well said!
Unfortunately the only government transparency Canadians see is the government of the day blaming the previous government for everything. Pity