Political change is never a straight line. No politico ever wants to admit that they were not doing things properly nor do they ever want to make a 90 or, God forbid, 180 degree change. Change must be slow, incremental and loaded with plenty of political plaudits for the politicians in power.
An excellent example of this is the desperate need to modernize how the Province of Ontario retails alcoholic beverages. Booze is a nasty word in staid old Ontario and a Whig politician like Premier Wynne does not rush into change rapidly. She is using the Arc of Political Change principal to fix booze retailing after 90 years. This will be a series of minor changes ranging from one to two degrees each on the arc.
It started with the appointment of former TD Bank president Ed Clark as Change Agent. He headed a committee to tell the government what assets it might sell to find some ready cash for the province. Mr. Clark was told booze was sacrosanct but he could check out opportunities for Hydro sales.
This approach seemed to be working but there were some nagging journalists and bloggers around the province who thought it was long past time to do something about the archaic way booze is sold in Ontario. It was not until the Toronto Star joined the chorus that the politicians realized they were in trouble.
A Toronto Star reporter seemed shocked to learn that the province’s monopoly Beer Store operation was not owned by the province nor even by Canadian-owned beer companies. The paper found a cause. It had story after story on how the Beer Store was mistreating the craft brewers in the province. The newspaper kept the heat on the Wynne Whigs until the Premier capitulated and promised to sell beer and wine in select grocery stores.
The select grocery stores are supposedly those who can easily pay a hefty license fee for the right to sell beer and wine. They are also supposed to be bigger than a football field so that people will actually have to search around to find the beer and wine. Maybe the paternalistic Whigs will arrange it that you can only buy beer and wine if you also buy groceries while you are there.
But when you add everything up when the dust settles, Ontario citizens will find that Ms. Wynne wants their approval for moving the Arc of Change about five degrees. That seems appropriate as the change will please about five per cent of citizens because they shop in those stores anyway and vote Liberal anyway. And Ed Clark will collect his fee from the province and claim: “My work here is done.”
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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