Professor Schultz’s take on my telecom reform – the full study

Last April, I reprinted on this blog an article by Professor Richard Schultz published in the Financial Post on the reforms that I accomplished in the telecommunications sector as Industry minister. This article was an excerpt from a much longer study (29 pages) which forms a chapter in the book How Ottawa Spends 2008-2009: A More Orderly Federalism?.

Professor Schultz heads McGill University’s political science department. I obtained his permission to reprint the study in its entirety. Click here to download the PFD file.

The paper not only describes the reforms themselves but deals mostly with the very difficult process that led to their adoption. Indeed, I was confronted with significant opposition when trying to achieve them, not only on the part of some interest groups but from within my department and the government, hence the title “What a difference a minister can make.”

Many people imagine that a minister has wide powers and that his personal stand on issues automatically becomes the government’s official position. Reality is much more complex. One must be extremely determined and have a clear vision of the goal to achieve in order to avoid the many obstacles in a long and arduous process where several players are involved. I often had the impression of being the main character in the British comedy Yes Minister.

I would strongly advise anyone interested in politics and in public policy to read Professor’s Schultz’s very interesting analysis, not simply because it’s about me and my reforms, but to get a very realistic description of how the political and bureaucratic machine works in Ottawa.

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