At a recent Crossing Boundaries forum on citizen-centred federalism, former Ontario CIO Scott Campbell made the case for engaging politicians in the debate over government transformation.
A number of key obstacles are blocking the path, he said. Dealing with them will take a searching public debate and it must be led by politicians. Moreover, we need a critical mass of them to get the job done. He concluded by challenging all of us to adopt the goal of engaging a thousand politicians on the file by 2008.
As someone who has spent the past 10 years trying to get politicians into this discussion, I winced as he spoke. I know first-hand how difficult it can be. They tend to view topics like this as “plumbing” issues, best left to the bureaucrats.
However, the wheel may have turned here. The goal is a good one and it is do-able. It is increasingly apparent to every