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1/ So I got invited to a dinner with a minister today. Just an intimate group of experts chatting with the minister over dinner at HQ. How fun! Most public servants try to keep me the hell away from ministers, so it was nice to get the invite.
2/ Of course, the Minister's HQ is in Ottawa while I - thank every star in heaven - am not. I pointed out the grographical challenge to the public servants. I will occasionally give away advice in return for a good meal but I've never yet paid my own airfare somewehre to do so.
3/ So I inquired if the invite came with a travel budget. The very polite answer was no, sadly not. Not unexpected, of course, but it did make me wonder why I got the invite in the first place.
4/ Does official YOW think the chance for a dinner date with a minister (not a very senior one) is so desirable that people will spend their own money to have one? Or was the whole thing a charade? "Sorry minister, we invited expert from across Canada but only YOW folks came"
5/ Because, here's the thing: if ministers only consult with Ottawa experts, they're going to get a v. distorted view of what constitutes "good ideas" in a given field of policy. Ottawa-based interest groups aren't always much better informed than govt about what works/matters
6/ By definition, YOW-based interest groups think its important the federal govt have an outsized role in things. Their bread-and-butter depends on it. This view is, shall we say, not always widely shared amongst their memberships.
7/ The "Ottawa bubble" is not just a govt thing. It includes the big networks of interest groups and NGOs that live symbiotically (and occasionally parasitically) with the feds. As often as not, they are part of the echo chamber and hence part of the problem.
8/ In every field of policy, there are tons of smart people across our country who rarely get heard because they don;t work in that sad little logging town on the Rideau. Ministers who genuinely want to understand their files should get out and listen to them more often.
