Silly Season
No more analysis- it is officially silly season.
What is silly season you ask? It is the time when people stop caring about the message and start fundraising so that they can afford to have a message next year.
Golf tournaments, rubber chicken dinners, cocktail parties, lobster boils, taffy pulls- normally these occur on a fairly ongoing basis, but there is a concentration of these events in the early summer for two reasons. First, everyone is still in Ottawa. Second, no one is on vacation yet.
Is silly season important? Yes because a) it is a great opportunity to meet people (a cover charge for politics?) and b) it reminds everyone that these "icons" are really just people. People who get drunk and fall down just like you and me.
It is also an entire economy. No matter how you change the relevant acts, money will always drive politics. There is a cottage (pun intended) industry that caters to these types of events and without them, I daresay the second tier beneficiaries (caterors, golf courses, wait-staff agencies etc.) would totally fall apart in Ottawa. I know at least 80 people whose livelihood is directly tied to these events and they in turn employ hundreds of others.
There are also 308 "second" silly seasons, or silly season roadshow, that happen when the MPs go back to their constituencies. These are usually not as flush with corporate sponsors and high end prizes- but they are engaging nevertheless. I can remember hosting a constituency event a few years ago where the normally articulate MP transformed himself into a hick so as to communicate with his constituents. It was like acting, but now I didn't know which was the real thing.
It is easy to be cynical about these events and buying access to decision makers, but to be honest, the proliferation of these events has gotten to the point where it is impossible to draw a straight between them and access. Obviously, as I have noted before, the organizers of these events are in political demand, and they will have their phone calls answered, but frankly, the monetary value of attendance can't be seen as buying influence because there are not enough hours in the day to sell to spread evenly between the would be purchasers. In other words, the focus of political contribution laws are ill-focused.
But, you will be "seen" there. BS. That is why everyone wears a name-tag- because we all blend in together and no one can remember us.
That is, until they send out the invitations for next year's event.
What is silly season you ask? It is the time when people stop caring about the message and start fundraising so that they can afford to have a message next year.
Golf tournaments, rubber chicken dinners, cocktail parties, lobster boils, taffy pulls- normally these occur on a fairly ongoing basis, but there is a concentration of these events in the early summer for two reasons. First, everyone is still in Ottawa. Second, no one is on vacation yet.
Is silly season important? Yes because a) it is a great opportunity to meet people (a cover charge for politics?) and b) it reminds everyone that these "icons" are really just people. People who get drunk and fall down just like you and me.
It is also an entire economy. No matter how you change the relevant acts, money will always drive politics. There is a cottage (pun intended) industry that caters to these types of events and without them, I daresay the second tier beneficiaries (caterors, golf courses, wait-staff agencies etc.) would totally fall apart in Ottawa. I know at least 80 people whose livelihood is directly tied to these events and they in turn employ hundreds of others.
There are also 308 "second" silly seasons, or silly season roadshow, that happen when the MPs go back to their constituencies. These are usually not as flush with corporate sponsors and high end prizes- but they are engaging nevertheless. I can remember hosting a constituency event a few years ago where the normally articulate MP transformed himself into a hick so as to communicate with his constituents. It was like acting, but now I didn't know which was the real thing.
It is easy to be cynical about these events and buying access to decision makers, but to be honest, the proliferation of these events has gotten to the point where it is impossible to draw a straight between them and access. Obviously, as I have noted before, the organizers of these events are in political demand, and they will have their phone calls answered, but frankly, the monetary value of attendance can't be seen as buying influence because there are not enough hours in the day to sell to spread evenly between the would be purchasers. In other words, the focus of political contribution laws are ill-focused.
But, you will be "seen" there. BS. That is why everyone wears a name-tag- because we all blend in together and no one can remember us.
That is, until they send out the invitations for next year's event.
posted by Atlas Hugged at
5:58 a.m.
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