I had thought that this week I’d write a Halloween spoof on the lives of our political class in Ottawa. But to be honest, they’re just not so funny anymore. Except, that is, for the quick-witted Scott Brison, who seems to have a zinger for each occasion, and Bob Rae, who concluded his recent interview with Rick Mercer by skinny-dipping in a cold Ontario lake. Not my cup of tea, you’ll be glad to hear, but it’s better than the old-style double dipping, popular in Ottawa not that long ago.

A friend told me some time ago that the reason he wouldn’t vote for the federal Conservatives is that they’re humorless, especially in office. And that’s not just being without humour; it’s the total, complete, unrelenting negation of humour. I now understand what my friend was saying.

Sure, there’s the joke of beginning to address global warming in 2050, likely by then from the new desert lands of Alberta and Saskatchewan. But it takes more than that to make a seemingly sane man smile.

The problem is I’m pretty sure that Michael Ignatieff won’t be funny in government either. I don’t have my logic text with me, but does this mean that Ignatieff is a Conservative? As we used to say on the Prairies, “trick or treat!�

I must confess here to believing for some time that John Turner and Paul Martin were the same man, that John was just wearing a Paul mask to cover his battle scars.



Closer to home

Rather than throw more eggs at the folks in Ottawa, however, I decided to stay closer to home for Halloween, re-reading the local papers. I was confused by the idea from the upstart news organization in the Valley that a good newspaper is not ideological; it just calls the balls and strikes as they see them, telling it like it is.

The problem with this view is that one can’t really understand the social world unless you bring some focus, conceptual forms and values to bear. That is what ideology does; it’s like a set of eyeglasses without which the social world appears in an undifferentiated haze.

Having at least some ideology is necessary, even when it is partial. We don’t need to be ideologues, of course, but we do need some ideology. Good newspapers, then, are those that know what their ideological orientation is and make this explicit to their readers, or alternatively include work from a variety of ideological angles to make their fare less partial.

I was also confused by what appears to be the neo-conservative bent of those working on a new economic development initiative in the Valley. Though I have been well out of this loop, in reading the recent press coverage I think I found two principles that these advocates of growth appeared to be advancing. Both are, perhaps, just a tad too ideological, however, more like blinders than eyeglasses, even to those of us happy to see more economic growth.



Separate developments

These advocates appear to think that it is important to separate economic development from social, cultural, and educational development.

However, one of the ways of attracting new business and the folks willing to work for them while continuing to attract new retirees for our niche market is to tend the social and cultural quality of life in the Valley while growing the economy. Treating economic development and social/cultural/educative development holistically, like a complex garden, is just common sense. Social, cultural, and educational development isn’t a socialist plot. Honest.

And if I have them right, these scouts for business also appear to favour developing the Valley’s economy without support from government. They seem to believe that money from government is tied to bureaucrats and politicians, who, they think, seldom get it right and too often change course.

But larger business interests in Nova Scotia typically have bosses to report to as well, some of them not even in the country, and some of these bosses get it wrong too, often taking their marbles and going home when they do. Furthermore, if you look closely, much of the current prosperity in the Valley has good government written all over its foundations.

For those of you in government who are watching from Halifax or Ottawa with some money to spend, let me say that not all of us here favour the tonic of neo-conservatives. There is still a lot that governments can and should do here to build prosperity and the quality of life, and I’m pretty sure you will always be welcome. So don’t be a stranger, eh?