Denley: Basic values better than ‘big ideas’ of Canada’s political class

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The book’s title is a bit peculiar, but apt. In Crowley’s analysis, “gardeners” are those who value wisdom accumulated over time and nurture the institutions that we have developed, including private property, the rule of law, our freedom to make individual decisions and an economic system that rewards effort. The description applies most closely to conservatives, although it bears only a passing resemblance to the current Conservative Party of Canada.

You will certainly be familiar with designers. They are the folks who have a vision of the future and they don’t really care whether you agree or not. There are ways to make you comply. Think of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne. Big ideas and small accomplishments would be their hallmark.

Crowley argues that we will have a better understanding of our country’s problems and how to fix them if we start with one simple notion. None of us, not even the “experts,” can possess enough knowledge to predict the future and put in place uniform solutions. The more effective approach is to harness the knowledge we all possess, the knowledge reflected in the choices we make for ourselves.

Crowley is a big champion of markets, not as some heartless economic concept, but as the expression of the sum of all of our choices and the importance of the freedom we have to make them. Businesses won’t last long unless they meet people’s needs.

Political parties, on the other hand, offer fixed solutions to the problems they choose to address. Once elected, those solutions might or might not be applied, but no major party suggests that people should figure things out for themselves. That would lead to the terrifying thought that we don’t need government to manage as many aspects of our lives as it possibly can.