The immediacy of today's media and sophistication of today's public relations has left one politician behind

In my earlier incarnation, I used to work as a staff member with the Public Affairs Bureau with the Province of British Columbia government, the department responsible for all media/public relations. I have written political speeches, issues notes, communication plans, and event plans... but my most favorite task was drawing up issues notes. These were one-to-two page documents outlining a specific problem or program, with a "recommended response" segments in bullets for politicians to read from. Obviously the more serious the crisis, the more fun it was to come up with the recommended response. Once approved, the issues notes were widely circulated among elected officials to ensure everyone was on the same page.

I enjoyed the job, because prior to it I worked as a legislative radio reporter. So I had the benefits of seeing both sides, and never before had I understood how thoroughly legislative reporters were influenced by the Public Affairs Bureau.

There's no doubt that political messages are now instant: reporters will ask a minister a question on a specific topic, and minister's must be ready with an answer. As a PAB employee with the Ministry of Transportation, we kept tabs on every minor and major issue in the province, and had to be ready if the minister was questioned. If he was, and we hadn't briefed him, there'd be hell to pay (luckily, that never happened). We had issues notes drawn up for some of the most mundane issues, such as a man who was late to work to start a little commuter ferry. Somebody may have complained about that (they did) to the local constituency office, and lo and behold we have an issue.

The sophistication of 24-hour news radio (where I used to work), television, the internet, blogging, and the PR that powers it came to mind when I read an interview with Corky Evans, a long time MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) in British Columbia. He was not an MLA when I worked there (he served before and after), however I had run into him in Vancouver when I was a reporter there. He is a convivial character and I always found him rather likable. He is trying to determine whether he will run in the next election, and one of the things holding him back is the vast array of communications people:

I no longer fit with the technology of the times. I came into public life when it was an oral job. And when the written word was required it was the written word and I wrote it and I said it. And, for 20 years off and on, I've come here and never spoken words written by somebody else. I have tremendous pride in that although it's nothing anybody else would give a damn about. But anyway, it's no longer an oral job. And it's no longer a written job. It is now an electronic job. And discourse is irrelevant and your words are assumed to be written by somebody else and they're assumed to be sterile so that you can't get anybody in trouble. And it's immediate.

It used to be that a problem would come to you - as MLA or as a minister or something. And you'd talk to all the people and try to figure out what was right and see if you could sort it out and put some things together and go try something. Now it's electronic and people think that you should know the correct answer to an issue in ten seconds of it being put before them. And your profession is equally guilty. You figure out something that I don't know anything about and never heard of, put a microphone in front of my face and say, "What you going to do about x?" And if I say, "Never heard of it" you just look stupid. And if you give an answer, you're committed to that answer forever. And I don't want to sound like I think there was a good ol' days. But I am part of a generation that pre-dates electronic communication. And I'm not sure if I continue to serve that I won't fall even further behind in acceptable behaviour.

If he decides not to run, B.C. politics will lose a real character. And even though many of our livelihoods depend on the constant stream of PR writers, staffers, and advisors, the way he describes the old days sounds pretty sweet, too. Unfortunately for Corky, I'm afraid those days are gone forever.