Some politicians and government bureaucrats seem to believe that the public will accept anything they say just because it comes out of their mouths. Their words are cloaked in the mystique of officialdom and therefore carry instant credibility. Even if those words defy common sense.

Take Stockwell Day. The federal government has been pushing a tough-on-crime policy. It appeals to the hardcore right-wing supporters of the Conservative Party but makes little sense otherwise. Crime rates have been falling in this country, and we know from the American experience that sticking more people in jail doesn’t address what caused them to turn to crime in the first place and therefore doesn’t have the desired effect of actually reducing crime.

The policy comes with a significant price tag — housing and feeding all those new inmates — and the Feds are trying to pass on those costs to the provinces.

When asked for the justification for the policy, Mr. Day, president of the Treasury Board and holder of the purse strings, said it was a response to an alarming increase in unreported crime.

This, from one of the most powerful public officials in Canada.

At the provincial level, pretty much any time Colin Hansen, Minister of Finance, makes a comment these days, it seems inane. Whether it’s the actual cost of the Olympics, the HST or online gambling, Hansen’s words belie the facts. Listen for his spin now on how the B.C. Place roof replacement is on budget, notwithstanding that the price tag has inflated from $350 million to the $600 million range. Wait for him to say the words “and on time” and you know something’s not quite right.

We’re not immune here in Whistler. A few weeks ago, the municipal administrator wrote a letter to the editor of this newspaper. He described municipal council’s approach to the issue of the asphalt plant at Cheakamus Crossing as being “as transparent as possible.”

How does that work? An organization is either open or it’s not. There’s nothing transparent about Municipal Hall when it threatens to shut down a woman selling cosmetics or providing dog-walking services because they don’t have business licences yet purchases millions of dollars of asphalt and gravel over the years from an operator without proper business licences and questionable zoning.

Paying lip service to a principle doesn’t make it real or believable, no matter who says it.

Then there’s the whole sorry mess about the “legal opinion” council has received on the IP1 zoning issue. Every one of the members of council has referred to it, but it’s still not clear how many opinions have been given, whether they have been in writing or verbal and who has actually given the advice. Although asked repeatedly, the mayor refuses to offer up the actual written opinions, if there are any.

So in the case of the Alpine Paving/Whistler Aggregates rezoning application, a process that will see a noxious industrial use entrenched beside a residential neighbourhood forever, along with $400,000 of our money going to the applicant, the public is to believe that the “legal opinion” says what any one of the seven members of council interprets it to say. That’s notwithstanding the fact that the mayor says that all actions, or non-actions, taken by the municipality to date on this issue hinge on the legal advice they have received.

It’s hard to believe that four members of council, including the mayor, have suspended their own abilities to think critically, listen to the community and use their own life experiences to come to the correct conclusion on this issue. Instead, they have hung their positions on a $400-an-hour suit whose actual opinion they refuse to disclose.

It would be laughable if it weren’t so awful for the Cheakamus Crossing neighbourhood.