Eric Koch is spending two weeks in Europe. A number of his regular readers have generously volunteered to compose guest-postings – this one is from David Schatzky.
On May 30, Guy Giorno, Chair of the Conservative Party’s Federal Election Campaign, told the Economic Club of Canada how Harper won his historic majority. He credits what he calls “ordinary Canadians” with exercising common sense and being very astute when they turned their backs on the Grits.
Giorno asserted that voters didn’t see Harper as the dictatorial head of an evil regime insidiously trying to grab more power, but instead as a solid, predictable leader who would continue to run a reliable, stable government focussed on what mattered most to them: a thriving economy.
According to Giorno, the people in charge of the Conservative election campaign didn’t give a hoot about what editorialists or intellectual elites had to say. They cared only about giving average voters what they wanted, which had nothing to do with how many questions the PM answered at news conferences or who wasn’t admitted to Conservative election rallies.
Giorno didn’t say what it will do to Canada to be led by a PM with no vision other than maintaining the economy. He implied the only thing that counts is winning elections. Public policy nuance, the nature and complexity of nation-building and preserving public institutions are of no importance because most citizens just don’t care about these matters.
Is he right?
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
60 percent of the popular vote went against the Conservatives or to put it more positively, almost 2 in three voters cast ballots for parties other than the Conservatives. The “historic” majority for Mr. Harper came about with only a 2% increase in the Conservative vote – hardly indicative of a broad-based swing to the right.
Of course not, according to this member of the intellectual elite. But he does highlight the question of the proper role for the “ordinary Canadian” — you know the chap, family man, hardworking, plays by the rules, pays his taxes… A wise old friend always referred to him as “Joe Q Public behind his beer stein”. Is he the right guy to have addressing matters of public policy nuance and those other important questions relating to how the place ought to be run? Or should they be left to clever folks like you and me?
Think of the money we could save by doing away with all that nonsense associated with elections.
Would it be useful to consider roles of intellectuals as an underclass, as well as as an elite?
For sure some intellectuals, for example Sketches readers, will be pre-eminent among others – elite in that sense. But access to Canada’s political elite and influence on their (our?) decisions may be a different matter.
China did have, say, about 1300 years of accepted leadership by an intellectual elite – homogeneously-trained scholar-bureaucrats. A meritocracy in a culturally controlled society drew them from all classes. At least as long as access to the exams and use of the results were open.
In Canada we had the CBC, and respected advisory councils, and establishment university rectors.
Is Canada now in an era when Intellectual endeavour entertains and rewards itself, (a good thing, keeps it humming along until it might be useful, and occasionally pops out usable surprises on its own), but only interests political elites sometimes, as a tool to realize visions that originate elsewhere – say among devotees of Thor and Pluto? Implemented incrementally, if that’s what’s needed to gain broad voter acceptance – this was an openly stated rule for acceptance by the recent Conservative policy caucus. So no new Treason bill at this time.
Then what roles will the intellectual underclass aspire to? Maybe more indentification and influence with “ordinary Canadians”, whoever they (we?) are?
We tend to forget that the Conservatives did not “win” the elect but rather the Liberals “lost it” and then lost the election. Consider childish and bitter transition from Chretien to Martin and then Dion and Iggy. I would have thought the electorate would have sent our Liberals into the void like the U.K. Liberals under Jeremy Thorpe.