The federal New Democratic Party national caucus held an open, i.e. media is welcome, roundtable on the economy today. The NDP roundtable featured presentations from some notable economy experts, including Don Drummond, a former senior bureaucrat at the Department of Finance and now the Chief Economist at the TD Bank.
Two things struck me as I listened to the two-hour roundtable that was at times a little windy but was also filled with the occasional nugget.
First, the very event, it seemed to me, was primarily a political one or one that was organized to serve a political objective, namely to so that the NDP could be seen to be credible on economy issues. NDP members, including leader Jack Layton, listened dutifully to the economic advice that was being offered and asked some relatively intelligent questions.
Second: I was struck at just what kind of rock star, if you will, Drummond has become as a result of the current economic crisis. Drummond is a credible voice on economic policy issues because he seems to be politically unaligned. That's not to say he does not have opinions on policy issues but he views the policy debate in terms of economic outcomes not political outcomes. Where social goals or other non-economic goals play upon a particular policy choice, Drummond recognizes that his area of expertise is not in these non-economic areas and instead falls back to clearly explaining the economic costs or consquences of various policy options. In that way, the work of Drummond and his team of economists at the TD Bank ends up being cited to support seemingly competing political positions.
I should note here that Drummond is not unique in this respect. Several other Bay Street bank economists – I can think of Merrill Lynch's David Wolf, BMO Nesbitt Burns Douglas Porter, and Scotiabank's Warren Jestin to name a few — who are also effective at playing this kind of influential non-partisan role.
After the panel concluded, several NDP MPs were keen to have their photo snapped with Drummond, no doubt so that they could be used in the next MP newsletter. – “See, mom, I've been talking to important economists!” Drummond seemed to suffer the grip-and-grins with good humour and patience.
I'll have more once I go through my notes on some of the nuggets that came out of the meeting.
David,
I would suggest that the cheap shots by the media ('relatively intelligent') is why these kinds of events are necessary for the NDP. I have been a political junkie for some time and during the last two elections the numbers of NDP plan were acknowledged by many unaligned commenters and analysts to have added up (unlike the plans of the other national parties). Now I agree that not all analysts preferred the choices of the NDP (e.g. investment over massive corporate tax cuts) but the math added up (not the case with the Libs Green Shift election costing or in the case of the Cons their 2006 costing that didn't include their promise on fixing the fiscal imbalance).
So I have no problem with criticism of policy but when the media continue the narrative that the current NDP is fiscally inept or irresponsible when there is evidence to contradict that in their election platforms I get a little annoyed.
You make a very good point, Jenn. It wasn't intended to be a cheap shot but, upon re-reading it, it sure sounds like it. My apologies.
The point which I should have been more careful to make is that even NDP organizers themselves recognize that they have a public relations problem (caused in part, you are quite right to say, but accidental or intentional cheap shots by the Media but also partly because of the fiscal misfortune of the Rae administration in Ontario) in that many Canadians are nervous about the NDP having control of the federal treasury because the NDP have not always carefully explained or demonstrated their fiscal and and monetary proposals. I think putting Tom Mulcair (a former provincial cabinet minister) as their lead on finance helps and certainly, events like the one we attended to day, do as well. Today's event could have been held behind closed doors — the NDP and every other party routinely discusses policy issues in private — but I think organizers felt they wanted the media in on this one to demonstrate an NDP capability and credibility on these issues.