In several of my previous Medium articles, I have referred to a particular episode of my political life. Forgive me for telling this story again, but I will take this anecdote in a slightly different direction.
I attended a non-political, social event of about 200 people. Our local member of Parliament (MP) showed up. He moved from table to table, talking to many people. He spent about 10 minutes per table. When he got to our table, he fielded some standard questions voters often ask their representatives, such as government services and taxes. He answered them politely in a non-committal way, saying things like: “That’s an interesting perspective. I will take that back to Ottawa.”
We could argue that enough Members of Parliament attended similar events in their constituencies and got similar feedback, that collective feedback should eventually filter into cabinet and somehow be incorporated into whatever decisions the cabinet was making. If so, then I would put this activity mostly in the realm of governance. But is this feedback actually making it into cabinet?
Imagine the discussion in government caucus meeting, which includes all government MPs.
Chair: Mr. K_____, what do your constituents think about Bill ABC?
MP K ________: Well, I went to a social event with some of my constituents. Only about 13% of them raised any concern about Bill ABC. But 61% wanted lower taxes and 42% wanted more money to public health care.
Chair: Mr. L_____, what do your constituents think about Bill ABC?
I think most discerning readers will see this kind of conversation will never happen. The MP will not relay his findings in any formal or informal way.
So what was the purpose of the MP visiting us and sitting at our tables for a few minutes?
The answer lies in the standard response: “That’s an interesting perspective. I will take that back to Ottawa.” Just think about that response.
For a short time, we got some face-to-face time with a political celebrity, and we like the attention from celebrities. He appeased us with this comment and made us feel we were contributing to the betterment of Canada. We would be thinking, “What a nice guy to spend his Saturday evening with us.”
Let’s look at the psychology of three groups of voters. Partisan voters would vote for the MP’s party regardless of whether he showed up to the event or not. But they would still like the celebrity time; they would tell their friends of their interaction positively. Independent voters would be more inclined to cast their ballot to the incumbent MP because they had some personal time — and he sounded like a reasonable person. Non-friendly voters are not going to vote for him. But this little meeting just might convince some of them that they have better things to do on Election Day than vote. They could muse: “Mr. K_____ is not that bad of a guy.”
So, my MP’s time at our social event was mostly about increasing the chances of his and his party’s electoral success. Maybe there was something in these meetings that made it back to the caucus meeting, so I would score these encounters at 5% governance and 95% politics. That 5% might be generous.
Published on Medium 2023
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