Why do governments do what they do? Many times it seems governments act in mysterious, sometimes counter-intuitive ways. There are generally a few possible ways to explain the inexplicable. 1/ #cdnpoli
1. Sometimes governments are simply inept. They are trying to get it right, but they are listening to the wrong people or have ideas that seem good in theory, but don't work in practice. 2/
2. Sometimes governments are ideologically driven in an extreme way. They have a laser focus on creating a society that aligns with their ideology. Such governments are not particularly interested in what their ideological policies do to their citizens. 3/
3. Sometimes governments are deep in the pockets of certain donor groups. It can range from "We will get the votes out for you, advertise for you, get you elected/re-elected, as long as you do the things we want" to promises of kickbacks, lucrative directorships post-politics 4/
Then the government is beholding to these donors and is compelled to govern in a way that pleases them, often to the detriment of the citizenry. This is often also known as "corruption". 5/
4. Sometimes, a government official or even a leader, is compromised in some way. There exists proof of some behaviour that would be devastating to the individual's career in public office if it were to be revealed. 6/
The owner of such information can hold considerable sway over the voting, policy-making, and priorities of such a person. Blackmail/extortion are extremely bad influencers in any governance system. 7/
5. Sometimes, governments are desperately trying to find a balance between wildly conflicting goals of different groups of citizens. Unfortunately, in most compromises, no one winds up happy. 8/
6. Sometimes, and this is actually the real situation in a lot of cases, there are constraints behind the scenes that the public is unaware of. Such as when a previous government has locked the current government into a deal where there is a high cost to cancelling. 9/
For example, the Harper Government created at least 24 secret orders-in-council as well as entering Canada into a secret trade deal with China. The PM knows what is in those o-i-cs, but he can't tell anyone. Secret orders-in-council are sealed to the public for decades. 10/
These are possibilities from the municipal level right up to the federal level. So, when a government does things you don't like, you need to look at their record. You need to consider all these possible motivations or situations. Our journalists need to help us weed through..12/
the possibilities. We need to consider donor lists. If a leader wants to open up previously protected land for development, and they have a lot of developers giving them money, it's definitely a sign... 13/
But we also need to look at historical information. Why is John Horgan open to LNG projects? Well, we can dig back and find that his predecessor made some guarantees to the industry. 14/
theprovince.com/news/unprecede…
theprovince.com/news/unprecede…
We see headlines & pundits giving opinions (usually aligned with their personal political slant) but much goes on in government that we do not see. Some things could be better communicated to the public, but the secrecy attached to some things is out of even the PM's control. 15/
Society and politics are becoming ever more complicated and there are so many misleading sources of information it is hard to find the truth. We need to become much more sophisticated consumers of information. We need to think beyond the bumper-sticker slogans. 16/
