A time for everything under the sun - including political cooperation
According to Churchill, democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others we have tried.
Occasionally, on big, long term challenges and opportunities, we should expect our political parties to put aside the political differences and agree on a path forward.
I was thinking about this when I heard the federal Environment Minister talking about new policies related to the government’s Net Zero 2050 plan. There were 2030 deadlines, 2035 deadlines - around things like carbon taxes, curbing natural gas use, green grids, banning of ICE vehicle sales, etc.
The problem is that there is virtually no way this government will be in power in 2030, maybe 2035 - maybe 2050 - but who knows? Maybe Cardy’s Centre Ice Party will be in power.
The point is that after 30+ years of being around politics, in my opinion we should try to work for political consensus about the big stuff that will be difficult and will likely span multiple governments.
When I was at the Jobs Board Secretariat, we spent a lot of time building the Growth Plan. I won’t restate what this plan was but nearing its completion Susan Holt suggested we bring it to the opposition parties and try to get broad consensus on the big themes and direction. There wasn’t much interest at the top for this approach as the worry was the opposition would just play politics.
When you think about the big challenges and opportunities facing New Brunswick almost all of them will outlive any specific government - the need for sustained immigration, the multibillion dollar energy sector transition, key economic development opportunities such as mining. You could further and say that even K-12 education reforms should be widely supported because we can’t have every new government coming in and fiddling with French Immersion, as one example.
I continue to worry politics will intrude and on the big challenges and opportunities we will get suboptimal outcomes.
On the federal side, I think the train has left the station. There is too much acrimony there to think there will every be consensus. When the government changes there (and it always does), I suspect there will be big changes in the long term stuff.
On the provincial side, I hope there is more room for consensus.