What I Learned About Politics: Inside the Rise-and Collapse-of Nova Scotia's NDP Government

by Graham Steele

A Globe and Mail Nonfiction Bestseller

Shortlisted for the 2015 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing (Writers' Trust of Canada)

"A brutally candid assessment of what it's like to serve in government [...] Set in Nova Scotia, the experiences he describes could be those of any politician in any legislature in the country, including the House of Commons." - Jane Taber for The Globe and Mail

"A terrific book. Required reading, I would say, for anyone remotely considering getting involved in politics. [...] It will become course material for political science courses in this province." - Marilla Stephenson for The Chronicle-Herald

On October 8, 2013, Nova Scotia’s NDP government went down to a devastating election defeat. Premier Darrell Dexter lost his own seat, and the party held the dubious distinction of being the first one-term majority government in over 100 years.

In this new memoir, former NDP finance minister and MLA Graham Steele tries to make sense of the election result and shares what he’s learned from a fifteen-year career in provincial politics. In his trademark candid style, Steele pulls no punches in assessing what’s right—and what’s often wrong—with our current political system.

Includes an insert of colour photographs and a foreword from CBC Information Morning host Don Connolly.

Genres: Politics, Canada, Nonfiction, Biography

241 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 3, 2014

About the author

Graham Steele was a member of the Nova Scotia legislature from 2001 to 2013. He was the minister of finance and minister of Acadian affairs (2009–2012) and minister of economic and rural development and tourism (2013) in the Dexter government.

Graham is now heard regularly as a Nova Scotia political analyst for CBC. Before entering politics, Graham was a lawyer in private practice and in government.

He is a Rhodes Scholar and originally from Winnipeg. He lives in Halifax.

Reviews

[Andrew Hull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, plain spoken account of life inside government. Makes a person wonder why anyone would want to put themselves through it.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read. Graham Steele comes off as to-the-point and honest, but he's also likeable and has a sense of humour.

[Tom Wile · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for anybody in Nova Scotia with any political interest at all! I didn’t wanna like this book because I didn’t want to like Graham Steele. I’m not a fan of his political party, but what I learned was this book is not a treatise for the NDP. The author did a fantastic job of outlining what a life in Nova Scotia politics looks like, and how difficult it is to affect change. Very well done.

I actually picked this book up at a book fair, and it was signed by the author. Sadly one of the things that I learned from this book is that our political system in this province is just as messed up as it appears. Those of us that sit at home and think about how some policies could be better, Or different, should realize that the system is not set up to succeed. I have occasionally pondered a future in politics, now I’m trying to figure out how to be more politically active as a private citizen. All as a result of this book.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quote from the section titled "The End" Pg. 165:
"The British politician Enoch Powell, in his biography of another British politician, wrote something which strikes at political ambition: All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs."

You have to love a guy who can admit that he failed and is willing to explain why his actions ended in failure. Especially considering his position as a former cabinet minister, and in our ego obsessed age, where we constantly have to reaffirm how amazing we are online and offline, people willing to admit their loses should be treasured. Steele has a unique life experience and is willing to explain where he went wrong and so offers the best chance for other people to learn from him. Steele is very open about the fact that politicians are basically just getting better at being politicians, that in their already stretched schedules dealing with constituents, this idea that they will become experts in economics or law is impossible, and with the constant threat of being unseated from power they simply parrot the ideas of their superiors and magnify the minor defects of the opposition. He offers up a timeline of a politicians life: A young politician starts his or her life as an idealistic citizen thinking they alone have the ability to change society, but as the range of topics they need to have "expertise" in grows while the actual issues they can decisively effect grows smaller, the overall basic structure of government remains relatively static, and so the old politician wonders at the end of the career if anything he or she did was even worth it. I also enjoyed the small multimedia portion of this work with photos highlighting key points in Steele's career, the image of his goodbye card he sent to constituents when he retired including pictures of him in 2001 and his accelerated aging to an older man in 2013 due to stress was pretty funny. I felt that this was a really excellent and candid book on the nature of politics, and as a Canadian who hasn't really read anything about Canadian politics before I really enjoyed it.

Some quotes I enjoyed along with their page numbers:

"Now, after fifteen years in politics, I tell would-be nominees the simple truth of nomination meetings: its not about issues, and it's not about speeches. It's about getting people to sign up as members and then getting them to the hall to vote for you. If you walk into the meeting without knowing whether you've won, then you probably haven't. But I didn't know all this in January 2001. When it came to retail politics, I was an ignorant rookie." (16)

"Being in politics makes you dumber, and the longer you're in politics the dumber you get. That's because you learn habits of behavior and speech that serve political purposes but are at odds with the way normal people think and talk. As the habits become ingrained, you no longer even notice that you're thinking and acting like a politician. You do it because it works" (66)
The following section of "the rules of the game" of real politics is great, stuff like: the drive to be re-elected drives everything a politician does, spend as little time as possible at the legislature because there are no voters there, people vote based on what they believe to be true not what is actually true and so on. Basically laying forth the idea that the stuff a party does to be really good at getting elected doesn't actually prepare them for being good at running the government.

"Platforms are marketing documents, designed strictly to win votes. They are not serious attempts to come to grips with policy, nor are they financially realistic. Starting with the Red Book of Jean Chretien's Liberals, every platform now ends with a page of costing. These pages are parodies of real financial analysis. They start with a conclusion in mind and then work backwards. The numbers are mostly back of the envelope calculations. I have never seen a platform yet, from any party, that makes much sense-except when the Nova Scotia Green Party, in the 2013 election, said they didn't have the resources to do a proper costing. At least they were honest." (80)

"I've already pointed out that our MLAs are almost comically unsuited for the role that is thrust upon them in the legislature. That is doubly true of the MLAs we put in Cabinet. Every Cabinet is chosen based on a mix of ability, seniority, gender, ethnicity, and geography, and ours was no exception. One day you're a regular citizen, with maybe a few years of experience in the legislature, or maybe none. The next day you're a Cabinet minister, and suddenly you're supposed to read, digest, and debate all manner of complex issues, week after week, when each of the topics would be a challenge for any expert in the field."(82)

"The premier is also powerful because he is the only person in the government who also holds an elected, province-wide party office. He is the leader of the government because he is the leader of the party. As leader he controls the party apparatus: the poling, the organization, the fundraising. Running a modern political party, with its perpetual campaigns and reliance on big-data technology and marketing, requires large amounts of money. Whoever controls the money controls the election apparatus, and whoever controls the election apparatus controls the politicians. And it's the leader, usually, who controls the money."(85)

"The government has a thousand ideas, and every day people are bringing them new ideas or new versions of old ideas. The government isn't lacking for ideas. what the government lacks is money. That's why most politics is financial politics. It's about how public money is raised and how public money is spent. Because there are more ideas than dollars, politics is about priorities. Here's one piece of advice from an ex-politician: Never listen to what politicians say their priorities are. Their true priorities are reflected in their budget: what got funded and what didn't? The rest is just talk." (113)

"The truth is the provincial budget, in any given year, is virtually identical to the budget of the year before. My guess is that the budget is 98 percent the same from one year to the next. The only reason we might believe otherwise is that politics requires that differences be exaggerated. From one year to the next, no matter who is in government, and even if there is a change of government, the same civil servants do the same work the same way they did it the previous year. The status quo has an iron grip because every piece of public spending benefits someone. There is no program that is so obviously a waste of money that everyone will agree that it should be cut."(121)

"So in summary: we needed more revenue. We could raise fees, and we did, but they were a drop in the bucket. Tolls were out. Of all the tax bases, only income tax and sales tax were large enough to produce serious money. Lots of people said we should have higher income taxes on the rich. The reality, unfortunately, is that Nova Scotia doesn't have enough rich people. We already have the most steeply progressive income tax in the country, and a new bracket wouldn't produce the revenue we needed. And the rich, of course, know better than anyone how to move their money around to avoid taxes. Sales tax was the best option. Economists recommended it. The public preferred it." (133)

"Here's the problem: the skills and experience you gain as an MLA prepare you for nothing. If you're a Cabinet minister, most of the real work-the work that has value in the job market-is done by civil servants. If you're an MLA, most of your time is spent doing constituency work-which has no value in the job market. If you can't go back to exactly what you were doing before, what do have to offer? That's why so many ex-MLAs, including Cabinet ministers and premiers, struggle to find work after they resign, retire from politics, or get voted out."(142)
Great piece of honesty from Steele.

"The real issue with Nova Scotia's power rates is that most of our power production comes from particular kinds of fossil fuels. The price of those fuels is set on the international market, and so if we're going to have power, we have to pay that price. The challenge is to find a way to transfer our energy production from expensive and polluting fossil fuels to clean, stable sources. There is no magic answer here either. Wrong decisions are paid for over decades. Careless interference can be punished with rising rates, even brownouts and blackouts. But in the legislature, you'd never know it. If you listen to the opposition, you would think that everything that happens on power rates is the fault of the government of the day-it isn't-and that there are simple solutions that will quickly bring down power rates-there aren't. The real issues are hard, but we hadn't acknowledged that when we were in opposition, and our opposition wasn't acknowledging it now."(144)

"It struck me then, forcefully, that there was hardly any point to who sat in my chair or who was on which side of the House. None of us was dealing with the real issues. There was no fundamental difference between us. We were playing out a political charade, where our actions and reactions were dictated by our roles. I looked around the chamber, as if I were seeing it for the rest time, and finally understood the futility of partisan politics." (145)

"Modern politics means you build a base of voters who will vote for you no matter what. You do whatever it takes to keep your base hungry and angry. If that means stoking resentment and creating division, you do it. You ignore anyone who isn't thinking of voting for you, except to suppress their vote. You market yourself to the waverers by figuring out what they want and then promising it to them. You don't just criticize your opponents, you demonize them. You don't just demonize them, you destroy them. You claim credit for yourself and blame for your opponents and then repeat those claims, over and over. You undermine the source of any facts or arguments that run counter to your claims. Attack, attack, attack. It's just politics. (167)

Parties are supposed to supply predictability and stability to the political system. Without parties, the voter could vote for the best local candidate but wouldn't have any idea what to expect from the government. The problem with this theory is that we have parties, and the voter still doesn't have any idea what the government will do. Platforms are marketing documents . The parties manufacture differences for election purposes, then once they became government, they face the same challenges, options, and constraints as the last government, which leads to remarkably similar decisions." (169)

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure what to say about this book - it's still playing on my mind and I feel there are sections I need to re-read and digest. The fact that I want to do this is due to the fact that the book is well written and very readable. It gives you a good insight into the political machine, and I can't decide if I'm depressed about it or feel perhaps a little more armed, as a citizen to deal with it. I think it's required reading if you live in Nova Scotia and are of voting age (or anywhere near it), whether politics interests you or not.

I feel more strongly than ever that electoral reform is needed, and that citizens must demand it. I also think we need to ask more of our politicians, but from our civil service and from ourselves as citizens. We need to have grown up conversations about what matters, and how as a province, we're going to get there. What I learned from Graham Steele's experience in politics, is that we are not going anywhere without them.

[Philip Girvan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Former Nova Scotia Finance Minister Graham Steele's brief book contains two stories: 1) a recollection of his time in Province House with particular emphasis on the NDP Government; 2) a critique of Nova Scotia's political culture.

The book provides fair summary of the NDP Government's political missteps. Steele offers frank criticism that I found revealing and informative.

The critique is accompanied by a set of rules, which centre around a politician's prime directive of securing reelection, and are likely applicable to any form of democratically representative government. These are contrasted with The Laws of Finance which they trump.

It's a different sort of political biography then I'm accustomed to readings. There's certainly less grandstanding. Would recommend the book to political junkies and certainly anyone thinking of running for political office.

[Dean Jobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and compelling insider's account of political life. Graham Steele writes from the heart, with clarity and in a conversational, no-nonsense style. Ever wanted to sit down with a politician over a beer, to find out how government really works? Read this book. Steele is honest and forthright in his analysis of what's wrong with politics in Canada -- and what citizens can do about it.

[Paul Leblanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Candid and from the heart!

[Peter Moreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steele writes a compelling tale about handling politics and government finances. I want to disagree with him in several places but he is convincing in his analysis of the problems facing NS.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book highly, especially for Nova Scotians regardless of political persuasion, as well as for political junkies in general. Well written and very approachable.

[Steven Langdon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that I have been looking for in many places for months. How could the NDP in Nova Scotia have gone from victory to severe defeat in just four years? I expected Graham Steele, their Finance Minister who resigned on principle at one stage, to provide much insight.

There are certainly remarkable pieces of information in the account: the party had no worked out plan for their move into power, despite strong expectations of victory; as Minister of Finance, Steele and Premier Dexter almost never met to talk over three years; caucus seemed to play no role in what the party did. These were shocks to an NDP insider like me who could never have anticipated such errors.

But Graham Steele also reveals attitudes in his own writing that strike me as very curious. After years as an MLA he concludes constituency casework is a distraction from real political work -- my own experience as an MP says such detailed interaction with constituents has to be at the heart of successful policy-making, because of the accurate insights it gives into the realities to which political choices must respond in setting priorities and determining how best to pursue them. He also ignores the whole area of his own interactions with caucus members over the years -- as Minister of Finance he recounts at length the public consultations he undertook about budget constraints without ever writing about caucus member involvement in that process. Plus he never really addresses the question of whether it made sense for an NDP government to be so preoccupied by balanced budgets in a difficult economic period, cutting ferry services and raising provincial sales taxes despite promises to the contrary.

Steele has written an interesting book about a crucial period for progressives to analyze -- but he is too caught up in identifying what he sees as institutional failures in our political system to recognize that the NDP (and he himself) may have failed their constituents by not working together as a team to confront tough times, rather than leaving it to an increasingly remote Premier to try to deal with a few large corporations to make development deals.

Maybe my rating is harsh, but this book turned out to be a disappointment after high expectations.

[Juice Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a rare glimpse into the internal workings of Nova Scotian politics by a politician, offering insight into how politics works in practice, rather than ideally. Steele, a former NDP MLA and cabinet minister, seems to be the type of person we would want in politics: intelligent, a proponent of balanced budgets and good governance and a distaste for the superficial theatre of partisan politics. However, it is evident that he became jaded from the dysfunction of government and the unwritten rules of pragmatic politics. Steele offers praise where it is due but sounds the alarm on several areas of concern all across government and politics, including how poorly prepared MLAs are when beginning the job, how few people are actually involved in the decision-making of government and the constant marketing and campaigning that defines and drives parties in power. This is a must read for anyone interested in Nova Scotian or Canadian politics.

[John Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent and easy read. It highlights a lot of the challenges with being in government. The book isn’t about making the NDP look good or bad, it is rather about his experiences with the different aspects of how the provincial government operates in Nova Scotia and the types of characters you meet. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Canadian politics.

[Linda Leafloor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I expected.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant take on Dexter-era Nova Scotia politics from an insider - if you want to learn more about our (backwards) political scene and why we are where we are today, this is a must-read.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful read about Nova Scotian politics.

[Nathan Hood · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not as insightful as I was hoping, but it is certainly validating if you've ever worked in politics on the east coast.

[Kelly Greenwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful insight into politics, the rules of the game with re-election being paramount, and how those rules get in the way of meaningful change and reasoned choices. A must read of Nova Scotians.

[Charlie McInnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good! It gives insight into what NS politics is like and anyone who is planning on going into politics should read this. He may be cut and dry but its honest and very realsitic.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written by a highly respected Nova Scotia politician, a man who spent fifteen years in politics including four as a Cabinet Minister. It is not a “tell all” book, although it includes information which up to the time of publishing, was not publically known. It is simply a man sharing his observations about our political system, how it works as opposed to how it was designed to work and an honest recounting of his experience in the Nova Scotia legislature. Steele entered politics for the right reasons, tried to do what was right and left for reasons he shares honestly. And although his book focuses on one politician’s experience in Nova Scotia, his observations can easily be extrapolated to any Canadian province

Steele covers a lot of ground, but he is a clear thinker and his thoughts are well organized. He begins by sharing with the reader the disturbing realities of what actually fuels politics - a system originally designed to enhance and facilitate group thinking, establish the best government policy for the electorate and share decision making with others who are knowledgeable and well informed. Steele finds that our present system does not do any of those things. Indeed, he suggest our system as it currently functions, is more akin to a monarchy than most of us would ever believe.

He reviews how candidates are chosen, not based on their knowledge and skill, but on their ability to be re-elected. And once elected, their main role in the system is to be loyal, support their party and then get re-elected. This leads to what Steele calls "The Rules of Power" - the rigid and enforceable rules that determine what an MLA does and how he spends his time. Each MLA develops his own profile. There is no job description, no systematic orientation to the role and no training. Each is expected to attend sittings in the legislature, where there is no systematic record of attendance or record of votes.

The legislature was designed for debate and thoughtful decision making about government policy. But MLAs quickly learn the role they are to play. All decisions are made elsewhere by the Premiere or the Premiere’s Office and the only role an MLA has in the legislature is to vote and support those decisions. That is why MLAs do not always attend the sittings, and if they do, they are often not paying any attention to what is going on. What will happen has already been decided. The MLAs time is better spent elsewhere in his constituency, where he is visible to his electorate doing the casework that will hopefully get him re-elected. Close contact with the constituency is the MLAs secret strength. But as Steele points out, the irony is that anyone can do the casework in a constituency, helping its members deal with their individual problems. It does not require an MLA from a specific political party.

Steele then looks back on how Darrel Dexter and his NDP party swept to power in Nova Scotia in 2009. They did this by slowly and patiently gaining the trust of the electorate by working on and delivering on three files: public ownership of auto insurance, paying for the health care of seniors in nursing homes and removing the sales tax from home heating. However despite a glorious election win, they eventually became the first one term government in one hundred years of Nova Scotia history whose leader also lost his seat. Steele reflects on what brought Dexter and the NDP down before they even started: the MLA expense scandal and the government’s decision to raise taxes, despite a public promise not to do so.

Steele shares his experience during his time in office, gives his take on Dexter’s leadership style, and looks back on his days of hard work, political heartache, his resignation as a Cabinet Minister and the end of his political career. It is an insightful, honest cautionary tale.

His account includes many things he learned during his tenure in office: “The Rules of the Game” - things we all probably knew but secretly hoped were not true; how the “Laws of Finance” should always trump “The Rules of the Game” but don’t always do so; and the reasons politicians find it so difficult to make the choices they are required to make. The numerous “Escape Hatches” allow politicians to avoid difficult decision making and the status quo becomes the automatic fallback position. With the “Iron Grip of the Status Quo” in place, the government never moves forward.

Truthful, distressing, insightful, and honest; well written and very readable.

[Brennan Gillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely excellent read for anyone interested learning more about the state of politics in Nova Scotia. While it focuses on the NDP's short governing period, the insight is relevant to anyone who cares about the realities of politics and government in Nova Scotia (or any province). Graham Steele raises awareness of our political state. This is highly recommended for anyone contemplating a political career or anyone who wants to really understand the workings of our government.

[Erica B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started off a bit dull and like a poli-sci text, but then the last half got into the interesting points of seeing what was going on. As a public servant, probably my favourite part was when he said he believed that civil servants should get the same percentage pay increase that MLAs got. Being part of a government that gave themselves a much better pay increase than what they offer the people doing the brunt of the work (as noted in this book) is a bit off-putting to say the least. Anyway, the other take away was no surprise, that in general the job of a politician stinks as the people you serve basically don't know what's going on and therefore a lot of bad decisions are made because they make good news. Also the public tends to place blame at the government in power, not the one that set up the government in power for the fall or reward. Had a bit of a linkage to The Best Laid Plans, as he seems to be someone who cares more about doing a good job than just politicking, but not sure the truth about that. Probably best a book for someone younger who could learn a lot, or someone who wants to better understand what's going on with their government. Was quite neutral in his politics, and as somewhat of a spoiler alert, his main realization at the end of his career is that partisan politics don't work and most parties would all do the same things given the same circumstances. I'm not quite sure I agree with this, as something like gay marriage would not have happened under Harper, but I do see the sentiment.

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sub-title reveals part of the story, Inside the Rise- and Collapse - of Nova Scotia’s NDP Government. But the book is more than that. It’s a very personal story about disillusionment. Steele was a Rhodes scholar and a man who wanted to make a positive difference in his world. He quotes Enoch Powell: "All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” The book is his own story of that failure, and a window on the world of politicians and governments. Eight years in opposition taught him that “Being in politics makes you dumber, and the longer you’re in politics, the dumber you get.” I suppose it should come as no surprise that the prime purpose of an elected politician is to get re-elected, but I still have a bit of a rose tint left in my glasses, and it disappoints me to read that a man of Steele’s calibre now perceives that, even in government, people of good will have very little chance of making effective changes. Personally, I prefer my friend Margaret Swain’s response to a challenge: “Don’t tell me I can’t do something while I’m still trying to do it.”

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Political memoirs are always interesting, and this one is no exception. I especially liked his "Rules of the Game" and that one of them is "policy debates are for losers."

I felt like Steele did fall into his own trap and followed the rules of the game quite closely - he couldn't seem to acknowledge that all parties take part in governing and bear some responsibility to what happens in the province, even if they are not the governing party. He lays blame for Nova Scotia's woes on any party but the NDP - a bit myopic.

[Mj Amirault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, Graham Steele writes what he feels was the failure of the NDP during their time in power. He lists a set a rules politicians need to adhere to if they want success. According to Steele, much of the success or failure is out of the party-in-power hands, it is pre-ordained by what has gone on before they won the election. Although some of the failure or success can be change somewhat by how the party-in-power reacts to situations, but this does not necessarily change what it happening, it only changes the publics perception of what is going on.

[Jason Deveau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure which rating to give this book, so I landed halfway at a 3. It deserved a 5 for its well-written glimpse into the life of a principled politician and his struggles with the status quo political system. On the other hand, it deserved a 1 for the amount of cynicism conveyed about politics, which could lead to further voter apathy and discourage citizens from participating in the political process.

[Shawn Bigley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for anyone interest in politics, and NS politics specifically.