Team Harper to Commit Sociology, Continued

"We need to have more free trade within Canada," the Industry Minister said in an interview, adding his speaking tour aims to recruit more Canadians "at the ground level" to the cause.

Free trade involves exchange, which involves trust.  You don't get trust without shared language, alignment of interests - all that common ground kind of stuff.

Which, of course, is the opposite of what divide and conquer, trouble lapping at our shores messaging accomplishes.  In everything that they have done, Team Harper has sought to bred suspicion and build walls between provinces, communities, citizens - all the while stifling information so as not to taint their ideological message.

It's great for reinforcing top-down control, North Korea style, but it's terrible for fostering a thriving business climate.  To build a community of the willing, you have to commit a bit of sociology.

If James Moore is serious about breaking down the walls that divide Canadians - and I'd like to think he is - he's going to have to buck the trend his leader has set and embrace a different way of engaging.

Fortunately for him, Open Government provides the perfect conduit for that.

Were I Moore, I'd be hopping on a motorbike with Richard Pietro this summer and bringing this message of open dialogue and shared solutions right to the people - even if it means going over the head of the Prime Minister.