I’ve been tweeting the hell out of the MLA expense story. I hesitate to call it a scandal, because political scandals tend to get saddled with the suffix “gate” and this has always been a cause of aesthetic concern for me. But make no mistake about it, some of the spending has been scandalous.
My friends are moderately split on the subject. Some of them think this is a tempest in a teapot that diverts our attention from the more important issues of housing, education, health, and the Olympics. These friends make a solid point. One that is being endlessly reiterated by Finance Minister Graham Steele, now touring the province on a push-poll “consultation” with Nova Scotians designed to justify an HST increase. Mr. Steele tells us the MLA money we are talking about amounts to a “drop in the bucket”. A few tens of thousands of dollars, and our focus on it is terribly distracting from the bigger picture. A few of my friends, and Mr. Steele, are right about that. This is just chump change.
My other friends think that it was their chump change, and that makes them chumps, and it was their MLAs who made them that way. They also have a good point. Most of my friends are fairly politically savvy. They may not be the compulsive wonks that dwell in my house but they stay in touch and they make informed opinions. They recognize that it isn’t all MLAs who turned them into chumps. They believe that most MLAs are hard working and honest people who want nothing but the best for their constituents. They also believe that Ghandi himself would have gone wild with an unchecked expense account. The opinion of our representatives from the Nova Scotian electorate at large seems considerably less forgiving.
A well known finance minister – then revelling in the glorious and unaccountable outrage that is Opposition – once came and spoke to a political science class I was taking. In politics, he told us, it doesn’t matter what is true, it matters what people think is true. Graham Steele, who is constantly telling us to forget about this, should talk to that guy. Because the Nova Scotian electorate thinks he, and hs 51 counterparts, are criminals or just shy of it. Graham Steele knows that’s not true, just like I do. Unfortunately, the electorate is just not as forgiving as I am and anyway – it doesn’t matter what is true.
MLA expenses are more symbolically than materially important. They represent a selfish mismanagement of public resources by the people who promised to do exactly not that if only we’d vote for them. Naively, we voted for them and expected more. But fewer and fewer of us are falling victim to that patrticular naivte, and so fewer and fewer of us are voting. I have heard and read comments on this story from voters calling for a boycott on voting. Clearly, boycotting voting is the avoidance of, rather than the solution to, the problem, but this does not change that sense of further disefranchisement in voters. Such a boycott may not present a problem for the entrenched MLAs who could benefit from fewer outraged voters venturing to the ballot box, but it is potentially disastrous for our democracy.
The government can take steps to deter this disaster, if Darrell Dexter ever returns to Nova Scotia. These steps should include, but not be limited to: determining a just and open process of MLA compensation, opening the books completely on MLA expenses, changing the rules to make MLAs more accountable, and telling Graham Steele to think twice every time he wants to tell us to stop talking about this.
Posted by Marshall on February 20, 2010 at 1:06 pm
A few comments. At the end of your blog post, you tell the government what steps they should take to fix the system. But Dexter has already outlined what he’ll do, and did it a couple weeks ago. He’s going even FURTHER then what you suggest he should do:
“I believe that the regulations need to be updated to reflect a contemporary office or working environment and that clear, adequate, guidelines are required,” said Premier Dexter.
Premier Dexter also announced that he contacted the Speaker and the leaders of the opposition parties to inform them of his desire that the Internal Economy Board be disbanded.
“I asked the opposition leaders to work with government over the next few weeks to prepare legislation to replace the Internal Economy Board with a modern legislature management commission based on best practices, operating in the open with a framework of accountability and specific direction that is publically debated and adopted by the legislature,” said Premier Dexter.
The new legislation will set clear limits on what can be expensed and why. The proposed commission will standardize the system of procurement, leasing and staffing. It is also Premier Dexter’s wish that the meetings of the commission be PUBLIC.
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I get that ultra-partisan people will say things like “if Darrell Dexter ever returns to Nova Scotia” and suggest Graham Steele wants people to just stop talking about MLA expenses. But see, that’s part of the problem with politics. Hyper-partisan comments, instead of constructive criticism, turn people OFF politics. Abuse of tax dollars obviously piss off voters as well, but this very negative kind of attitude doesn’t serve the public all that well. I have nothing against free speech, and am glad people blog, but you’ll attract more voters with honey then with ammo.
Posted by David Croft on February 20, 2010 at 1:45 pm
I appreciate the comment, just as I appreciate the steps Dexter has promised to take – a point I should have taken care to make in this blog. I would have applauded those steps more loudly, though, had they been publicly taken before he was shamed into it by the Auditor General’s report. It appears he had no problem feeding from the trough while it was hidden from public view. Better late than never, though, so kudos to Mr. Dexter.
The “if Darrell Dexter ever returns to Nova Scotia” was a cheap shot, I confess. My apologies to Mr. Dexter. Those slip out sometimes, and if they make me giggle they stay put. You’ve got to admit, though – Spain, Copenhagen, Arizona, Vancouver, and Washington is quite a lot of time away from home in only 7 1/2 months. I may have forgotten some travels, even. My snide comments, if they are snide, regarding our honourable finance minister, are an unfortunate but visceral reaction to both his sneering dismissals of citizen concern over MLA spending and his so-called Back to Balance tour which seems designed to orchestrate by push-poll the illusion of public support for an HST hike. If I have been unfair to Mr. Steele, I would gladly apologize for that. But first he has to stop talking down to me.
Now let me be clear – I am not ultra-partisan, as you suggest. Provincially and federally, I have voted for every party but the conservatives. I was a GPNS candidate in the last provincial election, which did nothing on election night to damper my enthusiasm about, and hope for, Nova Scotia’s historic choice of a New Democratic government. Though I was dismayed by the dishonest campaign the NDP ran, I nevertheless believed in Dexter’s ability to be a proponent for change – and said so in this very blog. I still believe it, just less so. A couple of months after the election, I reasoned that change was best evinced from within one of the big three parties, and (still bothered by the overt fiscal lies told by the NDP during the election) I left GPNS and, in a fit of mad desperation, joined the provincial Liberal party. My future there is decidedly in question and it is likely I will spend some time as a non-partisan curmudgeon.
Posted by quidnuncnovascotia on October 1, 2010 at 10:09 am
Dear David
Very thoughtful article. I agree in one way, it takes us from the larger issues, I don’t think we can get to the larger issues if there is no leadership by example. If we are all in the life boat and only the captain and his favoured crew are getting fed then the leadership by example is gone.
In the world of a citizen we are bound with others in this issue and the stripe of the politics that once may have definded us, dissapear. I think Mr. Dexter may believe the “tempest” theory, but at his peril.