Adam Radwanski: on Politics Today

Adam Radwanski: Deep thinkers need not apply -- contains the best paragraphs on Canadian politics today!

[. . . . ] But its coverage was symptomatic of a broader phenomenon. For anyone tempted to come up with nuanced solutions to complex policy problems in this country, the lesson is simple: Nobody cares.

That the media tends to give productivity and other dry policy topics short shrift outside the business pages is forgivable. Its job is to sell copy. What's less forgivable is that those charged with running the country do likewise.

It's a product of our political culture that there is little incentive for governments to engage in serious long-term planning. Governments rarely look beyond the next election. Few ministers spend enough time in portfolios to undertake major structural change; when they do get ambitious (as, say, John Manley arguably once did in Industry), their reforms are just as likely to be put on the backburner by their successors. And election campaigns inevitably focus on hot-button concerns -- not how many jobs will be created down the road. [. . . . ]

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