Inside Politics

PMSH: doing what's right, not what's popular?

by Janyce McGregor Posted: January 28, 2010 2:28 PM Last Updated: January 28, 2010 3:06 PM

Speaking during a moderated panel discussion Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered this reflection on the challenges inherent in governing:

As a politician, you know, you're told over and over by your advisors and by your pollsters that, you know, "do x and x, it's good communications." But my experience is if you do bad policy in the name of good communications, that's going to catch up with you pretty quickly.

I was immediately intrigued.

Was the prime minister referring to anything in particular, I wondered?

Enquiring minds want to know, I thought. Could he have been offering a hint of regret for something his government had done because it was good political marketing... or popular and expedient in a partisan sense... as opposed to, say, motivated by a desire for good governance, or visionary public policy? In this forum for statesmen, were we seeing a new or different side of our prime minister, full of candour and self-reflection?

For the heck of it, I decided to ask his spokesperson, Dimitri Soudas, what Harper meant when he made this comment. Here's his reply -- which arrived in record time, I should add:

He means that you must always do what's good policy for the country.

 Now that's good communications.