Thursday, March 30, 2006

Politics and Policy

Last night author and columnist David Frum gave a talk to the McGill Campus Conservative Club in Montreal.

Thanks to a kind invitation from Daniel King, I was lucky enough to be there.

What Frum told the standing-room only crowd was quite interesting.

First, he made no bones about the fact that U.S. President George Bush is in trouble right now – and not just because of the war in Iraq.

Frum’s point is that Bush’s brand of “compassionate conservatism” may have been good politics but what it lacked was sound policy.

Hence, today the Bush Administration lacks coherence on vital issues like taxes, government spending and immigration.

The lesson for the Canadian Conservative government, says Frum, is that “bad policy is bad politics”.

The Conservatives need to come up with principled policies on key issues if they are going to be successful.

Politics, after all, is more than just about winning elections – it’s about governing.

1 comment:

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Glad to hear he admitted that George W. Bush's policies aren't working. I think the real problem is Bush governs based solely on ideology and not enough on pragmatism. Sometimes politicians must adopt policies that go against their ideology. Having principles is important, but blindly following an ideology is not desirable.