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There is no better way for politicians to avoid responsibility for their decisions than to allow civil servants to be the scapegoat for government bullshit.
Publication date:
May 22, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 4 minutes reading • 333 comments Bank of Canada Governor Typh McLem. Photo by Blair Gable / Reuters / File
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Candidates for the federal Conservative leadership have until June 3 to enroll new members; at this point, almost three months before the actual date of the election, the result may be more or less baked. Pierre Poalever must hope that this is true – not only because he seems to be the undisputed favorite, but because his war with Bank of Canada Governor Typh McLaugh over inflation in Canada may be unsustainable.
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Few of us understand monetary policy or have any interest in cryptocurrency, which is another of Poilievre’s niche interests. Poilievre’s campaign seemed to want to wink at the people who do it, without upsetting anyone else. But there was no shortage of repulsion, including within the party.
Poilievre supporters will dismiss Ed Fast’s resignation as a financial conservative critic this week as an irritant to Jean Charest’s supporter, rather than, as Fast claims, as a reasonable response to attempts to “clog” his defense of independent central banking around the table. finance. (Fast is co-chair of Charest’s campaign.) But Fast is relatively well known and sensible – a good Tory soldier, a former Harper cabinet minister, not from Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal. As mysterious as monetary policy may be, the general principle of central bank independence should not be difficult to defend: if there is one thing we should want to protect ourselves from the panicky, selfish, daily worries of politicians, it is certainly the currency . A government that wants re-election would have every incentive to cut interest rates, for example, to deal with the long-term consequences later (if at all).
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As intuitive as this argument may be, it may not affect the leadership campaign. But it could certainly be in a general election campaign. Poilievre’s cryptocurrency gambit could also be another serious vulnerability in this regard. Almost at the end of March, when he suggested that Canadians could “give up inflation” with cryptocurrency, bitcoin and etherium began their almost 40 percent collapse. This is a liberal advertisement for an attack, ready to happen. (The reasonable money, of course, is that Poaliever won the lead with hip-hop, then immediately headed to the center and disappointed all his revolutionary supporters. But that would also be a serious problem. Certainly it can only happen so often within the Canadian Conservative movement before it began to disintegrate.)
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I also wonder if Poilievre’s team made a mistake by making things so personal. “Ed Fast and Jean Charest wouldn’t have a problem firing a waitress or a welder because they’re not doing their job. But they will not do the same for a big banker whose failures cost our people a fortune, “Poalivr said in a populist statement after leaving Fast.
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This is not unprecedented: former Governor of the Bank of Canada James Coyne was the Westmaid of the Year at the Canadian Press in 1961 for his open war with then-Finance Minister Donald Fleming. But that was 60 years ago. It’s not as if only Canada is struggling with inflation right now: 6.8% of Canada in April was below the G20 and OECD averages of 7.9% and 8.8%, respectively. This does not help anyone to put food on the table, but also breaks the knee.
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Not that prominent government officials should not be banned from criticism. In fact, one of the benefits of the pandemic has been to instill reason in those of us with an unhealthy instinct to become public health workers after SARS. Faced with the most serious crisis of their careers, many of our top public health officers have failed miserably in their most basic job: Communicating and justifying public health measures.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Teresa Tam. Photo by Blair Gable / Reuters / File
So, in theory, there is nothing wrong with longtime Conservative candidate Roman Baber criticizing Dr. Theresa Tam, for example – or even saying he would try to fire her as prime minister. Tam’s pandemic record is in downplaying the risk to Canada and insulting those who disagree until it is too late to even delay the arrival of COVID-19 at our borders. After changing her mind about border control – or more likely pretending to change her mind under political pressure – she quickly began rubbing the type of rapid antigen tests used by other countries. The failure of her department to coordinate with border guards is a legend. She was not good at her job.
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But as I read about Baber this week, it occurred to me that his intervention actually made Tam more secure in his work – because no liberal government would want to be seen capitulating to such a populist uprising. That’s not great in itself: Just because Baber thinks Tam should be fired doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be. But in the long run and more broadly, allowing government officials to be the scapegoat for government bullshit would be a politician’s dream and would be detrimental to democracy: There is no better way for politicians to avoid responsibility for their decisions. When the next federal election takes place, no matter who is in charge of the Conservatives, there must be more than enough decisions in the liberal records to make attacking individual bureaucrats completely unnecessary.
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