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Canadian News: The Ministry of Friendship
Posted on: 05-26-2015 by Floor Covering Media

 

William Watson wrote a thought provoking editorial published in the Ottawa Citizen to help sociologists and others interested in Canadian social capital learn how developed and resilient Canadian social networks are becoming.

 

 

Statistics Canada periodically surveys Canadians; asking questions such as: how many friends Canadians have, how often they meet with or talk with these friends, whether they trust people generally, whether they think people would help them out in a bind and more. Statistics Canada's report on social capital was recently published.


According to the article, it states we’re a species known (so far only to ourselves) for our curiosity, so the results are intrinsically interesting. It’s interesting that watching lots of TV doesn’t interfere with your ability to sustain friendships, and that many of the indicators of friendship and trust are lower in Quebec than elsewhere in the country, despite Quebeckers’ belief we’re more friendly and fun-loving than all other Canadians. The data can also prompt useful reflections, such as Brian Lee Crowley’s here on Saturday, about true friendship and whether the modern variety stacks up.

And if you’re keeping score, the numbers are good. Most indicators of trust were stable between 2003 and 2013, a trying period for trust, while the indicators of friendship generally rose: more Canadians report having more friends.

 

 

But since when has a modern government, even a nominally conservative one, been content to merely collect and reflect upon data? Where there’s data, policy eventually follows. The report itself mentions in passing how some social capital variables have a “positive impact on a number of government policy objectives,” including better health, easier integration of immigrants, and higher quality of life.

What if the social capital variables had generally declined? What if OECD data showed Canadians had fewer friends than Americans, Brits or Chinese? What if we were below the OECD average on the key indicators? (And the OECD does track such things: See its Better Life Index at www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org.) Wouldn’t there be questions in the House about the alarming decline of friendship and social support in Canada? Wouldn’t there be accusations that bloody-minded Conservative budget cuts (a term more of art than fact) were undermining Canada’s social fabric? Wouldn’t there be stirrings within the bureaucracy as various ministers called for data to prove the accusations weren’t true? How long would it be before the various inter-departmental task forces morphed into Friendship Canada Amitié, or maybe even a full-fledged Department of Friendship and Social Connections?

 

 

If you think this is fantasy, consider the kind of spending the federal government already engages in. Last week, Postmedia columnist John Ivison wrote about all the millions of dollars “the federal faucet is gushing … indiscriminately,” including, for example, $16,232 to the Pioneer Club of Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba, “for new flooring so they can play floor curling and bingo.” Ivison’s main point was political: that the appearance of so much pork so close to election time might well cause a backlash in the Conservatives’ conservative base. In a reflex he wrote that he didn’t mean to imply the spending wasn’t for good causes. “What churl would deny the seniors at the Pioneer Club their new flooring …?”

 

 

Well, this churl for one. Under what possible understanding of the role of government does a ministry in far-away Ottawa approve the flooring needs of a private association? Put it another way, why are my tax dollars paying for their floor? The only possible rationale is that, government being so all-pervasive these days, their tax dollars may be paying for my floor. But “we all do it,” though a plausible excuse, is hardly a good reason. If we all took care of our own floors, that would be better both for our floors and for us.

 

 

Except, that is, in a world with friendship policies. If good floors can help make good friends, and if good friends are good for the society, well, shouldn’t the government involve itself in anything that in any way helps Canadians make friends? The Ministry of Friendship. It’s 2015. We’re way past 1984 now.

 


 

 

Floor Covering Media, a business network serving the floor covering industry, provides readers timely, objective news and information about flooring topics.

 

 

Readers may conveneintly retrieve this timely, objective news and information at Floor Search.info, which is Floor Covering Media's public search engine.

 

 

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