A new age of values under a Liberal government, or just the same old?
Premier-designate Dwight Ball mentioned the word "value" only twice during his victory speech last Monday.
It was on a very personal note, when he talked about the "value of hard work" instilled in him by his parents, and along with it the "value of community."
But that wasn't the first time he'd used the word. Throughout the campaign, he kept promising his was going to be a government of values.
Let's deal with the obvious first.
Nothing new
It's hard to imagine any party running an election campaign without some kind of platform, and what is such a platform if not a construct of the values for which the party promises to stand?
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Nothing new there.
The Progressive Conservatives presented no shortage of values, as did the New Democrats. Peddling values is the name of the election game. Picking from lists of competing values is what going to the polls and marking your 'X' next to the candidate of your choice is all about.
The realm of values is as wide and diverse as human behaviour is murky. One website alone lists 418 values, everything from "abundance" at the top to "zeal" at the bottom.
Not all values are necessarily what a modern, perhaps slightly suspicious or cynical voter might wish to buy into. Craftiness and cunning, for example, may come in handy when a tricky political situation arises, but who wants them as policy staples?
Extravagance may be justified on the day the people need a party, but not on the day they fill out their tax forms. Power may be a good thing when being without it means getting screwed, but we've all heard about the much-quoted connection between power and corruption. And the list goes on.
Even values we can all agree on, such as modesty, have their pitfalls. Too much modesty can lead to confusing bashfulness; too little modesty to the harsh braying of the braggart. Like everything else, values need to be handled prudently.
Not repeating the past
But what is prudent? What, for example, constitutes prudent handling of openness and transparency when management of information is necessary? Where, and in the service of which of the other 417 values, do you draw the line?
Welcome to the quagmire.
No wonder people turn to leaders for some kind of reassurance that the values their parties run on are more than just election bait.
But how do you tell a good leader from a not-so-good one?
Theories of leadership abound and are all over the place. Some theories focus on individual qualities, some on cultural and social conditions, others on whatever else they can come up with. They're like hammers having to select one nail among many.
One message of Dwight Ball's speech came through loud and clear: he promises not to repeat the policies that sank the PC government. That's not a value statement; that's just plain common sense.
Nothing new there either.
Still, his speech left no doubt about his basic decency. He spoke about "turning the page" and "the beginning of a new chapter;" about wanting to "do things differently;" about doing "what we have to do to build a stronger tomorrow."
As good a start as any
The road to that stronger tomorrow is spelled out in the party's five-point plan, a clever matching of action with value-loaded goals. It has restoring coupled with openness and transparency; building with a stronger and smarter economy; improving with health and health care; supporting with safe and sustainable communities; investing with education.
If that is a manifesto of what to expect from Ball's leadership, it's as good a start as any.
The potential spoiler in all this, though, is yet another value: the value of efficiency.
Ball referred to it himself when he acknowledged there are tough times ahead.
Oil revenues are down. The fiscal squeeze is on. All kinds of unwanted necessities are coming down the pipe. Efficiency of government to minimize any damage will be in growing demand.
We've seen what other governments have done in the name of responsible fiscal management – slashed services, cut jobs, reduced transfers to needy parties, turned miserly.
Ball has promised he won't do any of that because he'll run a government based on values.
That really doesn't mean a thing, because if there's a list of 418 values at your disposal to justify your actions, you can pretty well do anything.
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