Friday, October 06, 2006

Whose Life is it anyway?

OK I know I said I wasn't going to talk about my Participaction debates anymore, but that was a fib.

In today's Globe and Mail, Perry Kendall, provincial health officer for the British Columbia Ministry of Health, takes me to task for suggesting government PR campaigns designed to get people to alter their lifestyles never work.

Kendall says I am wrong about governments being able to alter lifestyles.

He writes I am, "100 percent wrong in concluding from this that people's behaviours cannot be changed. For evidence of behavioural change as result of co-ordinated campaigns that include education, social marketing, environmental and regulatory restraints along with fiscal inducements or barriers."

Yes, I guess Perry is right if you used the full power of the state you can alter lifestyles.

The question is, do we want to live in a country where government bureaucrats tell us how to live?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like the way Kendall makes reference to "fiscal barriers".

What a delightful way of describing coercion.