Evan Saugstad: Does common sense trump expert opinion?

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — “To the common people, for the common people” — a long held rallying cry, yet when heard, why is there such a negative response?

Why is it that when prospective Prime Minister Pierre says he will listen to the voice of the common people, the left side of our political spectrum twists itself in knots, trying to explain that those commoners have crazy ideas and do not know what they think?

“Axe the Tax,” says Pierre, “that is what the common people want.” Then, 100 expert economists respond, saying it is a “Crazy idea” and “What do the common people know about taxes?”

“Freedom for the common people,” says Pierre and Ottawa’s freedom experts respond with, “What do the common people know about freedoms?”

“The real childcare experts are moms and dads,” says Pierre, and the professional childcare experts respond, “What do moms and dads know about raising kids?”

“The opposition says we should be able to vote without producing any identification,” says Pierre, and the election experts respond, “What do the common people know about voting?”

“Schools should leave LGBTQ issues to parents,” says Pierre, and the gender experts in mass protest exclaim, “What do the common parents know about their LGBTQ children”?

Why the divide? Why is it that so many “expert” opinions are so at odds with what most Canadians think and believe? Why is it that our federal Liberal/NDP government detests the idea that most Canadians who consider themselves common sense people who love their country and wish to see it thrive are not to be trusted or listened too?

Pierre says he wants/will listen to Canadians and govern Canada to what the people want and expect. Justin and Jagmeet say they will listen to and follow what the “experts” tell them on how to keep Canadians toeing their line.

Back to what an expert is. Oxford defines it as: “a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of a skill in a particular area.”

Makes sense. If you want to find out why you can only see out of one eye, see a doctor. If you wish to make some financial investments, visit a financial planner. If you are getting a divorce, maybe a divorce lawyer can help. While there, you don’t ask the doctor about your investments or the financial planner about your divorce. We all understand that, unless you have personal knowledge that the doctor has done very well at investing or the financial planner has been through a couple of divorces and still manages to retain their investments. And no matter how good the lawyer is, you are not likely to ask him to fix your eye.

Why are so many of our politicians so prepared to repeat what their experts told them to tell us and then wonder why those common Canadians laugh? The simple answer is that experts can be wonderful in what they do and say within their field of expertise, but that is normally limited to their narrow view and scope, which seldom applies to and captures all situations or circumstances.

Take our response to COVID-19 as an example. Both Canada and BC’s medical health officers gave their respective PM and Premier expert advice that we must isolate, wear masks, and get vaccinated and that if 70% got those vaccinations, we would be just fine. Both governments took their advice, and without much delay, about 70% of Canadians voluntarily took their jabs. Common sense told us that in the absence of any better information, the experts were best followed, and we should take our chances that their advice was that vaccinations were safe and worked.

But then that expert advice changed. 70% was no longer good enough; they now needed 80%. OK, said the politicians, but now they need some new rules to “encourage” those laggards to get the next 10%. It sort of worked, getting the rate up to 80%, but then the experts said that it was no longer good enough and that they needed 90%, so more rules, more restrictions, a few arrests, fines seemed fine, and so it went.

What was missing in this journey was the use of common sense by our politicians. They abrogated their responsibilities on how to run a country to a few health experts to make decisions they had no expertise in, decisions that destroyed our economy, altered our mental health, and forgot that our everyday lives needed more than masks, isolation and vaccinations.

This same process and journey can be applied to so much of what we see and hear from Justin, Jagmeet, and now, in BC, David. If it comes from an expert, it must be correct, right?

Economists set tax policy with no thought that a common Canadian is then automatically expected to pay their bill, no matter what their financial situation or ability to take advantage of other remedies.

Some obscure professors are dictating to the government that personal freedoms are dangerous to the country and that they should be removed from Canadians.

An undergrad major who wrote a paper on child welfare becomes the expert used to determine that government-run daycares are a better place for our children to be indoctrinated rather than at home listening to their moms or dads.

A government in trouble seeking expert advice from social welfare workers on how to make it so easy to vote that those who receive their “free” money and have no identification can mark their x, and no one is allowed to challenge the validity.

Or that gender policies within our school environment are the exclusive purview of those that self identify as LGBTQ experts.

“No to the so-called experts,” says Pierre, “I will follow what Canadians think, want and need,” and in that, I agree.

Yes, these examples are important parts of our lives, but not our whole lives. All must be viewed in the greater context of society as a whole. Yes, hear what the experts say, but then use our political expertise to put all those little pieces together and make Canada a better place for all Canadians. (BC could also use a bit of this reality!)

The question is, can any politician take Canada back to a time when common Canadians mattered and had the final say on how our country was run? Or do we listen to the experts who so loudly declare, “WE CANNOT GO BACKWARDS?”

What is life without hope?