Food Chain Politics

From the attacks on the other parties to the touting of a six-point economic plan with repeated references to corporate subsidies to create jobs, it sounded like a checklist of items Ms. Wynne's advisers believe play well with key vote groups - up to and including the pitch for a provincial public-pension plan that has replaced transit taxes as her signature policy.

I can picture the back-room conversation, because I've heard it so many times before.

"Yeah, all great to be idealistic, but c'mon - this is politics.  People want you to sell only what they're buying and if you can't do that, you don't win.  Plus, you gotta hit the Oppo more; I know you don't like it but it doesn't matter.  It works.

I've heard words along these lines uttered by backroomers from every Party, from a whole host of relations consultants and partisans up and down the foodchain.

This is transactional, oppositional, incremental politics that refuses to look at the big picture as a matter of principal.  

I have seen some pretty petty politicians have their public images softened by strategic planners worried about alienating required voters, but I've also seen genuine leaders succumb to the types of position games that Canadians are frustrated with.

Which is why I'm positive that change can't happen from within in isolation - political culture is too entrenched for that.  It's going to take people inside and outside working together to heal our system.