POILIEVRE'S PLAN TO NIX GATEKEEPERS IS WRONG

Don't rail at gatekeepers; design better gates and find different people to staff them

If you're a “gatekeeper,” federal Conservative leadership contender Pierre Poilievre wants nothing to do with you. Zip, zero, zilch. Gatekeepers have got to go, because they're causing misery for ordinary people.

Gatekeepers are insiders, and insiders work the system on behalf of other insiders. Which leaves outsiders on the outside. Poilievre's answer? “Remove” the gatekeepers.

And who's the first to get binned? Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada. The gatekeeper of Canada's money supply is now squarely in the crosshairs of the comments section, thanks to Poilievre's pledge to sack. The promise might have shocked the establishment, but the crypto crowd loved it.

Then there's Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer. She's got to go for screwing up the pandemic response.

Joining her are the housing gatekeepers, local gatekeepers who put roadblocks in the way of immigrant skill certification, and the gatekeepers who block pipeline construction. Just remove the gatekeepers and let the freedom course through your veins, Canada.

One wonders if Poilievre will follow things through to their logical conclusion and pledge to bin himself?

Because what is a prime minister, or even a lowly MP, but a gatekeeper?

Of course, what Poilievre wants isn't actually the removal of gatekeepers but rather the replacement of the gatekeepers he feels have made bad decisions and let certain people down. And there is certainly a strong case to be made that gatekeepers have botched their briefs recently.

But here's the thing: T'was ever thus. To govern is to choose, and no one is going to bat 1.000. These days, most people would probably take something close to the Mendoza Line (.200) from their leaders, such is the current dismay with decision-makers. Then again, batting a decent average is hard to do when you're caught in the middle of a public policy hurricane, which is what the global financial crisis and pandemic have been.

Where Poilievre is indeed correct is that bank gatekeepers favour financial heavyweights over your average mom and pop. But that's how the economy works these days. Keeping Big Money happy is a big part of a bank's mandate in a world with global capital flows. Moreover, what happens in places such as Russia and China now ripples across the world, meaning any response must also be global in scope.

Yes, quantitative easing has inflated asset prices worldwide, but not responding in that manner would have kicked off a different set of problems, not erased all problems.

Getting angry at one central bank governor in a global economy is useless theatre, not a serious solution.

The first step to solving the problem is aiming at the right target. Want a different mandate for the Bank of Canada? Draw one up and give it to the governor, because that's within your remit. Think Tam was crap? Blame the prime minister for hiding behind public health officials when the decision-making crept into more political territory. Don't like the current skills accreditation and oil pipeline approvals processes? Legislate better ones. Don't rail at gatekeepers; design better gates and find different people to staff them. Because a world without gatekeepers might sound like freedom, but it tastes like anarchy.

More to the point, pinning the blame on people whose names don't appear on ballots is a giant waste of time.

Every Conservative leadership candidate should be aiming at one man, and one man only: Justin Trudeau (or Jagmeet Singh, if they need a practice target). Because Liberals and the NDP will be on the ballot in the next election, not Tiff Macklem, Theresa Tam or John Q. Planningcrat.

If the system is letting people down, tell them how you'll design a better system that plugs them into decision-making.

We absolutely need to reconnect feedback loops back into the government.

We also need more people who weren't minted in politics and newsrooms, so the full complexity of Canada's many daily lives is reflected in our policy-making and coverage of it.

That doesn't fit on a bumper sticker, but it might stop us from just blasting our horns in anger.

If the system is letting people down, tell them how you'll design a better system.