But are they listening?

While he's more optimistic than he probably should be as to the likelihood of anything improving, Murray Mandryk is right to note a common thread linking most of the Wall government's most glaring mistakes:

(I)f you look at where this government has struggled, it usually boils down to a minister who didn't listen.

Consider the government's problems in the last year: The massive overestimation of potash revenues, changes to Bill 80 that appeared to have been written by the construction industry; the more legitimate union concerns about abuse of the new essential services law and unfair bargaining; the privacy commissioner's concerns about disclosing patient hospital stay information to fundraisers; the unpopular changes to the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act (WHPA); the surprising furor over SCN cuts; the witch hunt over the NDP leak on the wrongly released sex offender, and; (sic) even the piddling budget cuts to Dutch elm disease and mosquito control.

So what do all these problems have in common? Well, the problems tended to start with either the minister concerned not seeking better advice or choosing to listen to only what he or she wanted to hear.
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Too much government time has been wasted listening to friendlies blowing smoke -- the construction industry, the potash corporations promising gigantic production numbers and expansions, the business sector, etc. Not enough time has been spent listening to others that would help develop more rounded policies. For this, Wall must take responsibility. He's allowed too many ministers like Rob Norris, Bill Boyd and Don McMorris to cater to specific interest groups at the expense of others. In short, he's made it easy for them not to listen.