The will of the people

Though it’s hard to see the trees for the forest as they say, a few trees stand out, such as the positive response of football fans to being welcomed to unceded Algonquin territory during opening ceremonies of the Grey Cup game November 26.

There’s also Prime Minister Trudeau’s apology to residential school survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador, the settlement for victims of the Sixties Scoop and the potential implementation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Then reality comes along to clear your mind. Despite all the positive vibes that fuel hope, when one looks at the ways governments actually work, what can happen and what will happen may be two different things. The difference between politicians and bureaucrats has an effect on what happens within Canada.

To think that elected politicians decide what the government should do and bureaucrats rush to implement them is too wonderful to really happen. We would all like to believe that this is the way our government works.

The truth is elected public officials are more likely to be engaged in getting re-elected. Appointed bureaucrats, however, only need to please public officials who are responsible for their appointment for a four-year period. Politicians come and go while bureaucrats are around as long as they wish in most cases. This implies that while elected politicians pursue policies that appeal to the general public then it follows bureaucrats who are more influenced by special interests, political elites, possible corporate careers as well as other motivations. With the appearance of competency, a high-level bureaucrat can influence the policy environment in many ways.

Of course, this is done with care. Policy changes can affect budgets and neither a politician nor bureaucrat wants to see their funding cut. But reality and logic show that bureaucrats can be unaccountable. They are less polarized than party-affiliated politicians, but are not removed from their posts willy nilly after power changes hands after an election.
This can lead to problems. The bureaucracy for the most part ignores small interest groups (more than just First Nations). For instance, why does a political decision to compensate the victims of the Sixties Scoop encounter difficulties? The politicians made a decision. The bureaucrats made a decision and that was only to compensate the people who could prove they were scooped, even though records of this time are problematic at best.

The cheers of the football fans in Ottawa were loud but unlikely heard by those on the Hill. And will the UN Declaration ever really be implemented? Well, it took almost 42 years to see most of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement implemented.
The main difference between top-level politicians and top-level bureaucrats lies in how they are held accountable. A lack of accountability means the will of the people can be delayed or even thwarted.