18 Feb MLAs’ pay and public begrudgery – more feedback

Previous installments here and here. Paul Pross, emeritus professor of public administration at Dalhousie and the author of several books on lobbying, NGOs, and the formation of public policy, thinks we are being too hard on our politicians:

I first met a politician fifty years ago. Since then, as a political scientist teaching at Dalhousie and, since retirement, as an active party member, I have met many more. A few turned out to be crooks. There were some self-important, pompous twits. But the majority were decent men and women who worked hard at a challenging and often stressful job.

They don’t deserve the abuse being heaped on them.

We should ask why MLA’s spend their allowances in the way they do.

For example, most MLAs seem to have bought cameras. Why? This is an electronic age and photographs are an important part of making the work of the MLA visible to voters. MLAs need photographs of meetings with constituents and the events they attend to put in newsletters, press releases and to use as videos on websites. Leaders and some other MLAs need professional quality equipment because, as Stefan Dion discovered, leaders can’t afford to look amateurish. Professional equipment can be expensive.

MLAs’ charitable donations have also been criticized. MLAs are approached by numerous charities and worthy causes. It’s hard for them to refuse, or even to give a small donation for major local projects such as a recreation centre or purchase of hospital equipment. So many politicians donate far more every year than most of us.

We clearly need updated and more explicit rules governing politicians’ expense accounts. But we should ensure that they adequately support legitimate political expenses. In fact, we have less need for highly detailed regulations than for rules that encourage respect for public money and discourage a culture of entitlement.

The media could help to achieve that if effort were put into showing the public exactly what politicians do when they are not sitting in the Legislature and why they spend what they do.