Those Things That Outlast Us

Lyndon Johnson was a master politician, especially in comprehending the Congress and its inner workings. He was quoted later in life as saying, "It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention." Well, there are lots of political machinations going on now in Ottawa, especially concerning the Canadian International Development Agency.A non-governmental organization called KAIROS had its funding cut by CIDA last year and no one could make heads or tails as to why such a lengthy relationship between the government agency and a highly respected NGO should be severed. Repeated questioning most often got the same response from the government - KAIROS didn't fit into CIDA's funding protocols. It was a brutal decision that had basically gone to ground until a document was acquired showing that top CIDA officials had in fact approved KAIROS funding and that the minister, or someone in the political realm, overruled the decision. Following months of confusion the clouds began to lift and it became apparent that political ideology had trumped CIDA's hard-earned development experience. The Foreign Affairs Committee voted to send the factual documents concerning the troubling decision to the Speaker, with the recommendation that the minister be found in contempt of the House. Serious charges.As committee members ruminated on the issue of who had doctored the initial CIDA document regarding funding KAIROS, my concerns lay elsewhere. Though not nearly as politically toxic or of great interest to the media are the issues of what all this has done to CIDA itself. In his ruling concerning CIDA Minister Bev Oda's conduct, the Speaker stated last week that senior CIDA officials must be "deeply disturbed" by what transpired. Indeed they must. Sadly, political realities in Ottawa swirl around the fate of the minister, her future, and the honesty of the Harper government itself.As politicians, the penchant is always present to cause damage to the other parties when possible. Attacking or defending the minister most often depends on which party you are from. We live in the moment, often unwilling or too blinded by partisanship to see the broader view. And as hard as it might be to accept, every politician has to, at some point in their career, come to terms with the reality that government, Parliament, supporting institutions, and even the Parliamentary staff, will outlast us all. And that is also true of the ministries and agencies that compose government itself.Consider what CIDA has endured in these last number of years. The constant shift of priorities, the departure from long-term development in Africa, the revolving door of ministers, and, worst of all perhaps, the severance of relationships that sometimes went back over half-a-century. And this they had to accept in silence as their recurring political masters played partisan chess. But it got worse. As each former partner, scores of them, had their funding severed in the last year, the reasons given were that these groups were turned down by CIDA officials themselves for not meeting the criteria. We now know, in the case of KAIROS at least, that senior CIDA staff had approved further funding, only to be overruled by the Conservatives, likely at various levels. All of this begs the question: on how many other occasions was CIDA blamed for cuts they had tried to get past the government? We'll never know, but it's now clear that the Agency has been used as a scapegoat for political designs and that its continued decline in influence and prestige has been directly related to political meddling.The true sign of any accountable government or politician is the willingness to accept responsibility for difficult decisions. But when political masters blame their respective ministries in order to elude transparency or even responsibility, there are fewer things that you can do that could more undermine the principle of good government. CIDA has been a political tool long enough. It never wanted to leave Africa in the first place, and it grew deeply disillusioned at all the former friends it was commanded to cast off.Lyndon Johnson was right: solid institutions do permit politicians to be politically inventive. But in the end it is those very institutions that matter more than anything else - they are what outlive us. We can make them great or we can make them pawns. In all the focused activity surrounded the CIDA minister at the moment, it is wise for all of us in the drama to remember that a dedicated agency has been maligned in this process and that our only hope for doing something that could be truly lasting, is to restore it to its former usefulness. It is to the Agency's welfare and betterment that we must look if we seek to undertake our best work as MPs. To bring down or to maintain a minister is a compelling exercise, but to empower an institution, honing it for the coming international challenges ahead - that is building something that will still be functioning long after we're gone.