Imagine the outcry if local councils decided to claim their municipal governments as their own.
How about the Lou Maieron government? Or George Bridge council? Maybe Ray Tout, Chris White, Dennis Lever, Bruce Whale or Joanne Ross-Zuj government?
We’d like to think people would be pretty outraged at the audacity of civic leaders claiming the government as their own. We would be hard pressed to think any of those mayors would have enough ego to propose such grandstanding.
Not so, it seems, at other levels of government.
Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have deftly used the phrase “Harper government” to make announcements. Months ago, we railed against the 10 percenter advertising scheme aimed at getting the Harper Conservative message out to potential voters. We saw it as a bit of a fast one, for some free publicity – as did others.
The latest examples to catch our ire were from the Dalton “McGuinty government” in the form of numerous press releases sent in the past week. They read as follows…
Celebrating the first graduating class of full-day Kindergarten
McGuinty government supports all students to succeed; and
Expanding provincial parks
McGuinty government encourages families to enjoy Ontario’s outdoors; and
Delivering stability and predictability for farmers
McGuinty government protecting family farms; and
Get your family hooked on fishing
McGuinty government encourages Ontarians to fish this summer; and
Supporting farmers affected by wildlife damage
McGuinty government supports farms, updating 30 year old program; and
Ontario supports Toyota jobs
McGuinty government supports plant upgrades, helps protect 6,500 jobs.
Somewhere along the way, it seems to us the politicians have convinced themselves it is okay to commandeer government as their own. Perhaps it stems back to the efforts by the Liberals a decade ago to label the Progressive Conservatives under Mike Harris, as the “Harris government,” recognizing the very polarized nature of politics at that time. People either liked Mike Harris or they did not.
Since then, Harper and McGuinty seem to like their respective handles a little too much, suggesting the name ploy is either ego driven, or a marketing strategy for front of mind awareness about who is in charge.
Of course, that branding exercise can be a double edged sword, more perilous for McGuinty heading into an election this fall. Recent polling suggests an “anybody-but-McGuinty” attitude is shaping up, leaving Conservative leader Tim Hudak and NDP leader Andrea Horvath to pick up the pieces. Along with McGuinty, many good local Liberals could find themselves out of office for being too much about Queen’s Park orders and not so much about the ridings they are supposed to represent.
We could go on at length why a change is needed in Ontario, but for today, we will stick to what we see as a blatant misappropriation of resources and the danger that goes along with that.
While it is quite true the various ministries work under the governing party, there is a reason to keep the bureaucracy separate and apart from the politics of the land. Government employees have political beliefs too, but those should be left at home, rather than allowed to interfere with their work. Policy as presented by the governing party is based on advice from the bureaucracy and becomes law once adopted. To tie a personality into the mix is wrong.
While we appreciate the information being sent to us, we do note with a little scepticism the flow of provincial information has increased substantially in recent weeks. With an election this fall, the reason seems obvious.
For us, the announcements of government are about the people. The use of crown ministries to promote candidates, or prop up a leader is not proper etiquette and speaks to the absence of humility so lacking as a quality in leaders today.
It is the people’s government – a point seemingly forgotten in recent years.
