Changing the Conversation

Governance

Changing the political ‘rules of the game’ was unanimously seen as crucial to rebuilding public confidence in elected officials and particularly, to engaging younger people. The policy-to-action to implementation gap will not be resolved unless the federal level takes an active leadership role in moving to multi-level governance systems, grounded in the subsidiary principle. The ‘gong’ show in Question Period does not reflect general values about what Canadians want from their politicians, as demands for more open, transparent governments based on evidence-based decision-making grow. The language of fear and division has to be reframed to re-engage Canadians from all walks of life, and more critically to increase civic literacy and dialogue around the issues and challenges society now faces. These challenges require collaborative leadership and cooperative federalism, as well as new partnerships with civil society organizations and the research community.

1. Instill a House of Commons code of civil discourse and evidence-based decision-making

2. Augment access to the voting publics by implementing on-line voting and phone apps that increase information sharing on voting times, places and candidates

3. Convene business leader round tables from various sectors to speed the take-up of sustainable technologies, infrastructure, best practices and innovations

4. Build policy coherence within governments and policy congruence between orders of government to reduce overlap, duplication and make the ‘rules of the game’ more consistent

5. Engage in multi-sectoral collaboration around policy-making, and open-policy development processes to close implementation gaps and accelerate take-up of innovation

6. Amalgamate services, programs and facilities by federal/provincial/local governments based on the subsidiary principle

7. Transition to multi-level governance