Gomery as Glasnost

“A social scientist in Canada can only survive by virtue of a sense of humour”— Harold Innis

The ordinary citizen has a strong taste for scandals. They are an occasion for the powerless to glimpse the underbelly of the powerful, to froth sanctimoniously at the mouth over their bad deeds and to feed the fundamental cynicism about all public office holders that is so profoundly ingrained in the heart of each taxpayer. But scandals are ephemeral. The sponsorship scandal would have kept the attention of the public for no more than a few weeks if the theatrics of Sheila Fraser and Paul Martin’s solemn condemnation of the governing ways of the past had not combined to bring forth the Gomery road show.

The Gomery circus did in front of us on TV what the RCMP could have done in private for a fraction of the cost of the public inquiry. Both approaches would probably have generated the same results. But even...