Variations of this saying have been ascribed to numerous leaders over the past couple centuries but it has never seemed more appropriate as a description of the widespread abdication of leadership during the current pandemic crisis. All too often, those in leadership positions fail to respond until there is widespread public support for action and criticism of the lack thereof. They then finally make a move, bringing up the rear.
0 Comments
This comment and approach is associated with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Rather than chasing along behind, reacting to what has been, it calls for anticipating and getting ahead of the action. As is painfully obvious, it is also the complete opposite of the approach used by our governments. Rather than being proactive, they are completely reactive, always following along behind the action.
While discussing her forthcoming book in a recent Globe and Mail article, Jody Wilson-Raybould reveals an expectation that, in my view, made her unhappy experience in the federal government inevitable. She explains that her “world view” as an Indigenous person wasn’t accepted in many circles within government. That world view included the consensus style of decision making inherent in Indigenous politics, where political parties don’t exist. It included the belief that all people have views that need to be heard to reach sustainable long-term solutions.
The federal NDP leader recently contacted the newly-installed Governor General to advise her that any Liberal Government request to dissolve Parliament and trigger an election should be refused – because Parliament has been functioning just fine according to Singh. Let’s leave aside the propriety of a federal leader offering unsolicited advice to a Governor General (new or otherwise) and focus on the central issue involved – the power to dissolve Parliament and bring on an election.
The stars must have been in a strange alignment recently because I find myself in agreement with Steven Lecce and the Ford Government. They are under attack for removing a preamble to the new Grade 9 math curriculum that began by stating that “a decolonial, anti-racist approach to mathematics education makes visible its historical roots and social constructions.” It went on:
The Ontario Grade 9 mathematics curriculum emphasizes the need to recognize and challenge systems of power and privilege, both inside and outside the classroom, in order to eliminate systemic barriers and to serve students belonging to groups that have been historically disadvantaged and underserved in mathematics education. It is 20 years since 9/11 and the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City. Not long after, James Travers (Toronto Star, September 20, 2001) wrote about this tragedy: “Trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Centre is the once popular notion that citizens are best protected by government that is small, poor and impotent.” Criticisms that the public service is overpaid and underworked disappeared as we watched public servants – firefighters, police, ambulance workers, and countless others – on the front lines in response to 9/11.
As if there had not been enough upheaval with the prolonged pandemic and classes suspended or only offered online, the Ontario Government will be eliminating streaming in high school. This announcement has caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth. How will bright students be challenged? How will challenged students get enough attention? Oh me, oh my! At the risk of sounding insufficiently sympathetic, let me offer a long term view that may help to put things in perspective.
Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford has recalled the Ontario Legislature to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution in response to a court ruling against his government’s recent changes to the province’s election rules. These changes capped third party political ad spending at $600,000 for a full year before the official campaign period for an election, in place of the six month restriction which had been in place. These spending limits apply to the various interest groups/pressure groups that also face more stringent limits ($100,000) once an election campaign is underway.
Even though – or perhaps because – Canadians are preoccupied with the ongoing pandemic, Quebec decided that it would be a good time to amend unilaterally the Canadian constitution. This initiative would elevate further the primacy of the French language within Quebec and declare that Quebec is a nation.
One of the most painful lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is how vulnerable Canada is when it has to depend upon other countries for supplies of the life-saving vaccine. But Canada has to rely on other countries for a great many goods and services and, indeed, this has always been the case. Long before Confederation, Canada’s economic development was primarily as a supplier of staple commodities for export, such as fur, cod, and timber. After Confederation, the construction of the railway and the opening of the Prairies added wheat to the list of key exports, while “finished products” were mainly imported. Secondary manufacturing gradually developed in Canada, but mostly in the form of branch plants of American industries. Free trade agreements, beginning in 1988, tied our economy even more closely to the U.S. |
AuthorC. Richard Tindal, Ph.D is a retired Professor of Government. He taught for 30 years at St. Lawrence College, Kingston and was an occasional Visiting Professor at Queen's University. He has also written and consulted extensively about government. Archives
October 2023
Categories |