Welcome to the election campaign of non-answers
The pivot is a tried and true way of avoiding answers
As we move into the Ontario election campaign, be prepared to watch politicians of all stripes refuse to answer direct questions. It is not that they will be rude and ignore the questioner. What they will do is use a well-documented political strategy known as he pivot.
In October 2012, Republican debate consultant Brett O’Donnell described the pivot on National Public Radio. “The pivot is a way of taking a question that might be on a specific subject, and moving to answer it on your own terms,” O’Donnell said.
Former U.S. secretary of defence Robert McNamara said: “Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wished had been asked of you.”
So for example, a journalist may ask Premier Doug Ford if he still believes it was wise to eliminate most public health measures in March with the pandemic ongoing. Instead of answering, Ford may respond by talking about how quickly his government reacted to the pandemic, the excellent rollout of vaccines in Ontario, etc. He will say a lot while also not answering the question.
I recall being in the car with my oldest daughter about a decade ago. We were listening to former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak being interviewed on the radio. The radio host asked Mr. Hudak a tough, but fair, question. Hudak pivoted. My daughter looked over at me and said: “Dad, he didn’t even answer the question.”
Similarly a few years later, former Ontario finance minister Charles Sousa was asked by a reporter about the latest Ontario budget. Sousa immediately pivoted and didn’t answer. The reporter didn’t follow up. What is the point of interviewing politicians if they will not provide answers to questions asked?
Assuming we all dislike this tendency of politicians pivoting when asked questions you may be wonder “what can we do about this?”
There are several answers. First we must insist, through the power we have as customers, that media stop allowing politicians to get away with not answering questions. If the media isn’t holding politicians to account and/or insisting they answer questions then customers can simply switch to a media outlet (newspaper, radio, etc.) that will. That will get the attention of everyone in the media and politicians.
When a journalist asks a question and a politician gives them a non-answer, the journalist should say “thank you for that, now back to my question.” If this occurs in a news conference and the politician decides to allow anther journalist to ask a question, that journalist should restate the first question. After all, it is in the media’s best interest to get politicians to provide, honest, factual answers.
Why don’t more journalists do that now? That is a very good question and all I can think of is reporters and their employers worry that if they push too hard, then politicians may refuse to speak with them.
Next we have to stop electing politicians who refuse to give clear answers to clear questions. Politicians can get away with not answering questions and using the pivot because we voters reward that behaviour by electing and/or re-electing them. We have to stop.
A healthy democracy relies on our leaders being transparent and providing us with information. Using the pivot allows politicians to avoid providing us with the answers and information that we need. We deserve to be provided with intelligent, truthful answers to our questions.