Source : Globe & Mail

Is it a big conversation or a big con? The Ontario government is set to launch an unprecedented process of consulting voters to find a way out of its financial quagmire.

Not satisfied with the consultation implied in last autumn's election campaign, Premier Dalton McGuinty wants voters to give him their ideas about how the government can deal with the budget deficit and still renew social programs.

Two quick comments: It's a sham, but it's a wonderful innovation.

Mr. McGuinty will kick things off late next week when he inaugurates a website that will solicit the opinions of Ontarians. Quick on the heels of this will be meetings in eight centres at which ordinary citizens will be briefed on the province's situation and asked for suggestions to deal with it.

The whole exercise is something of a swipe from British Prime Minister Tony Blair who, last November, initiated the Big Conversation so his Labour government could have a "dialogue" about the challenges facing Britain. It too uses websites that encourage voters to submit questions that cabinet ministers take turns answering. In addition, at a series of casual but clearly contrived meetings, Mr. Blair and his lieutenants have met selected participants.

The Big Conversation has been derided as a "big con" and a "tightly stage-managed propaganda exercise," but the criticism seems just as overpackaged as the product. Consider how history was made earlier this month when a group of single mothers, teachers and students, including a 15-year-old boy in jeans and a death's-head T-shirt, was ushered into 10 Downing St. to talk with the Prime Minister about how children can be helped to get a good start in life. Churchill never did that.

Mr. McGuinty's "citizen's dialogue" is altogether more ambitious. It started last month with an initiative to solicit advice from Ontario's 63,000 civil servants, a process that has yielded 5,000 replies so far.

Next month's outreach into Ottawa, Windsor, London and other cities will take two forms. First will be seven gatherings, each a day long, at which selected focus groups of 50 people will work through the options open to the government.

These meetings, organized by Ottawa-based Canadian Policy Research Networks, will function as super opinion polls, in that the participants will be selected to represent the full glory of Ontario demographics.

At the same time, the government is organizing eight additional meetings at which 100 or so self-selected people who respond to advertisements will hold a "town hall" with Mr. McGuinty or other Liberals.

The government hopes that out of all this, mirabile dictu, the path ahead will be revealed.

It's poppycock, of course. Most of us don't have anything particularly original to say about how the province should be run.

Individuals might know what's wrong with some small part of the government, but reorganizing it -- making tradeoffs while trimming the $5.6-billion deficit -- is the stuff for politicians and a professional civil service.

Take a look at Mr. Blair's website and you'll find it filled with submissions about everyday concerns such as pensions, university tuition fees and disability claims. Will a "town hall" be any different?

A skeptical view, perhaps, but Mr. McGuinty will be fighting even more intense skepticism that his dialogue process is simply cover for him to do what he wants to do.

He wouldn't be the first politician to try this. You will recall how former Conservative cabinet minister Chris Stockwell set out nearly two years ago to consult the people about the future of Hydro One, then walked out of a meeting in London when he didn't like what he was hearing.

All this said, the state of democracy in Canada is unhealthy enough that we should not turn our backs on an invitation to talk to our leaders.

Yes, voters told Mr. McGuinty last October what they wanted, but if he wants to hear it again, let's tell him.

At a certain point, however, the Premier has to act, bearing in mind a famous quotation from another British politician, Clement Atlee: "Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking."

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