The newly elected Liberal Government has indicated that the advice and recommendations of public servants will again be welcomed in Ottawa. A return to what is often termed “evidence-based decision making” is certainly desirable and overdue as is the promise that Cabinet Ministers will be allowed to run their departments. But all parties involved, including especially the media, need to understand that the result will be diverse perspectives from time to time. There may be more than one recommendation emanating from the public service, and the recommendations may not coincide with the position being taken by the Minister which, in turn, may not coincide with the way the Cabinet seems to be leaning. This apparently messy situation is, I would argue, a sign of a healthy functioning democracy. It will sort itself out and the Cabinet will eventually make a decision that will be implemented by the responsible Minister and the appropriate public servants.
Before that happens, however, if the media pounce on every instance of mixed messages as evidence of a government in disarray, they will inevitably encourage the government to tighten up and to quash dissenting or alternative views. In effect, criticism from the media (and from public response to the media coverage) is likely to push the government into the same excessive, top-down message control that everyone found so distasteful and undemocratic during the Harper regime.
Let’s Give Things a Chance to Work
The new more collegial approach to governing being promised by the Liberals represents a dramatic change from the past, and especially from the totally centralized operations during Stephen Harper’s time. As with all such changes, there will be growing pains and one can only hope that the parties involved are given a chance to make things work before we start fussing over the occasional instances of divided or contradictory positions that will inevitably arise with the new way of doing things.