It might seem easy to compare politics to a totem pole. That is, the big guys are right at the top, and the order of importance is less important toward the bottom. In fact, traditional poles have the most important figure at the bottom.
Also, traditional poles rarely depict people. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, different poles had different purposes. Family histories, welcoming poles and guide posts are a few.
Better to compare politics to an old European village, surrounding a castle on a hill. At the centre or the top are our federal Members of Parliament (MPs), the folks who represent us in Ottawa. Over the years, our Alberta MPs were quite good about being open to calls from us, local media. They are good today, supplying local papers and radio stations with news releases, and often voicing their opinions about the world and all of us and our place in it.
Interestingly, unlike the guys further down, we usually don’t have to call a press office, or the party head, to be informed what is going on today. MPs usually all know it and have answers. Even if they might not have had any input into the backroom where decisions were made.
Next down the hill are our provincial Members of the Legislature (MLAs). These are in Edmonton. It seems far more so than MPs, MLAs rely on their staff. This is especially so for the cabinet ministers.
Our three MLAs, Todd Loewen, Scott Sinclair and Dan Williams, are usually approachable. But Loewen and Williams are ministers with a whole office and a ton of staff behind them. Scott just sits on the back bench, newly welcomed back into the UCP party. With all that staff or lack of such, guess who keeps us up to date on what’s what? You might have noticed. Starts with an “S.”
Then we have our local folks. Councillors. Reeves. Mayors. Chairs. Chiefs. These all look after our local governments, from counties and Metis Settlements, to towns and cities, to First Nations reserves and municipal districts. Some are great to talk with as far as news is concerned. One fact is, most news outlets don’t have enough resources to do a good job talking to the local politicians.
It isn’t helped by policies of “there is only one spokesperson for the local government.” Which means only the top person, like the reeve, is allowed to speak for that government. Sometimes the policy includes the CAO, or manager. While there is a good reason for the policy, it is all too often used by weak politicians as cover for doing nothing and having nothing to say.
Astoundingly, one politician also recently told us, “It’s against the law to talk to the press.” They still haven’t sent us the “law” that says that, because there is none.
For any local media, if anybody of any sort says something really silly in an interview, it’s better to just let it slide. Believe it or not, just like photographers, we try to make people look as good as we can.
That’s no matter if they are up in the castle, or way out working in the gardens.
Now, if we could only help what politicians sometimes say out in front of the whole world!
Jeff Burgar