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Shelley Carroll Doles Out Hard Truths
- Thread starter kettal
- Start date
Glen
Senior Member
There are easy fixes. What there is not is easy political fixes.
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
I agree with Glen on this. There are limitless options both on revenue and expense sides to deal with bdugetary short-fall. Infact, I would go so far as to say that if you really think about it the budget shortfall is actually a failure of leadership and nothing more. It is the process of implementation that creates the shortfall and limits changes required to deal with it.
Politicians in our system are I genuinely believe well meaning talented individuals but they are gutless and reactive. What is to stop you from implementing policy that will solve a problem, is the right thing to do, but will get you utterly slaughtered at the voting booth? The answer is absolutely nothing. The answer is also everything because it would not be self-serving on the one hand and on the other it would be like stabbing all the people who you had to use and gain favour with to rise to your position in the back. But you know what? I think political entities in this country really underestimate the capacity of people to reward leadership even when does not benefit them directly.
I was reading "The Art of War" a month back and the qualities of leadership Sun Tzu outlined over 2000 years ago still hold true. He said that a general must have the following qualities in this order: Sincerity, Humanity, Courage, Wisdom and Strictness. You can spend a life time understanding the ins and outs of politics and the "art of the possiible" but when it comes down to it I think any failure of leadership and hence public policy can be traced back to one of these five qualities. An individual who possesses them in the imagination of the public has all the political capital they need to solve a simple problem like Toronto's budget shortfall.
Politicians in our system are I genuinely believe well meaning talented individuals but they are gutless and reactive. What is to stop you from implementing policy that will solve a problem, is the right thing to do, but will get you utterly slaughtered at the voting booth? The answer is absolutely nothing. The answer is also everything because it would not be self-serving on the one hand and on the other it would be like stabbing all the people who you had to use and gain favour with to rise to your position in the back. But you know what? I think political entities in this country really underestimate the capacity of people to reward leadership even when does not benefit them directly.
I was reading "The Art of War" a month back and the qualities of leadership Sun Tzu outlined over 2000 years ago still hold true. He said that a general must have the following qualities in this order: Sincerity, Humanity, Courage, Wisdom and Strictness. You can spend a life time understanding the ins and outs of politics and the "art of the possiible" but when it comes down to it I think any failure of leadership and hence public policy can be traced back to one of these five qualities. An individual who possesses them in the imagination of the public has all the political capital they need to solve a simple problem like Toronto's budget shortfall.
Glen
Senior Member
TrickyRicky,
You might find this interesting (start at the last paragraph on page 195)
http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&...odSIRxXJtNaZKvoLujgM9KsA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
You might find this interesting (start at the last paragraph on page 195)
http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&...odSIRxXJtNaZKvoLujgM9KsA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
TR:
That model assume the individual has unlimited power during the period in which they're in power - which isn't how our political system in general and the mayoral system specifically is structured. Before getting slaughtered at the voting booth, one would get stonewalled and slaughtered before the council. No changes would have resulted from that.
For any system to base sound functioning on the basis of the leadership alone is rolling the dice - and public policy is more than just leadership. Following the principles in the Art of War is one thing - it never suggested "victory" is always possible under all conditions (not to mention the nature of the "victory" itself varies)
AoD
That model assume the individual has unlimited power during the period in which they're in power - which isn't how our political system in general and the mayoral system specifically is structured. Before getting slaughtered at the voting booth, one would get stonewalled and slaughtered before the council. No changes would have resulted from that.
For any system to base sound functioning on the basis of the leadership alone is rolling the dice - and public policy is more than just leadership. Following the principles in the Art of War is one thing - it never suggested "victory" is always possible under all conditions (not to mention the nature of the "victory" itself varies)
AoD