I'm just an average citizen. I try my best to be engaged in what's happening in our country but I'm hard pressed with a job, a kid, a home and a personal life to be as engaged as seems necessary. As I read my FB feed, read newspaper articles and listen to the radio it is obvious that there are broad shifts happening around the world in democratic countries. There is a general backsliding of democracy itself. Democracy is a good system but it is breaking down - to our peril - because a key factor is not present: citizen engagement. As an average citizen I see that I am not showing up in a meaningful way in my relationship to the system of power that surrounds me.
Just yesterday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would not be following through on his often repeated promise that 2016 would be the last election in Canada under our current first-past-the-post voting system. This really made me angry. It's just another broken promise right? Just another opportunistic politician acting in an opportunistic way and re-negging on what they said they would do. Every cynic in the country is looking smug and saying, "I told you so." Well I'm not interested in cynicism, that's just a subtle form of giving up parading as pragmatism. Cynicism is what allowed Trudeau to believe that such a flagrant mis-representation of his voters could get a pass from the public. A few ruffled feathers but by next week we'll have forgotten all about it. We have individually and collectively allowed this environment of cynicism to flourish.
Why is this such an important moment? With so much happening in the news and in the world around us why would I take the time to write this letter now? Because if we are ever going to pull our society back from the brink of - insert your concern here - we must have a tool that is up to the job. Our current tool, our governance structure, is not up to the task given it's winner-take-all election process. Electoral reform is a non-partisan issue that we can ALL care about because it can begin a reformation process that could get us a modern government up to the challenges of our times. Are you concerned with rising populism? Are you concerned about loss of Canadian identity? Are you concerned about climate chaos? Your voice cannot be heard under the current state of things. In a pluralistic society we require pluralistic representation. If you're concerned about Trump style politics in Canada it seems that electoral reform is the low-hanging fruit to guard against such an outcome.
More importantly democracy requires that we as citizens do some heavy lifting. Consider that the government, business and citizens are in a three-way tug of war. For many years the citizen team has been giving up their position, unable to manage or unwilling to engage meaningfully in the contest of power with the other two players. Business and government have formed tight relationships and it appears to many that they are almost on the same team now. With almost zero meaningful opposition from citizens they are about to pull us into the mud. This is in part due to their structural strength but it has at least as much due to our own lack of effort and organization.
Marshall McLuhan said: "There are no passengers on planet earth. We are all crew." Certainly this is true of a democracy as well. We can no longer happily live our own individualized lives concerned with just the affairs of ourselves and family. If we do we resign ourselves to watching the conditions that support the happiness and freedom in our lives slowly deteriorate as the months and years go by.
In my opinion one factor that must be present in any citizens' engagement moving forward is face-to-face meeting and relationship building in your local community. A movement for reform cannot only take place on-line. A world where citizen power means something is a world where people inhabit the public places of their cities, towns and countrysides. We cannot keep reinforcing the internet echo-chambers that the internet and social media have fostered.
If you are interested in what I am saying then the next question is logically, "What do we do?" The answer is very simple: you act. Those words appear simple but are obviously very difficult to actually enact in our busy modern lives. There are two broad strategies I have found. One is to start something yourself with your friends and neighbors. Send out an email to 15 people you know telling them that you're frustrated and want to meet-up and talk about it. The people who show up are the leaders you've been waiting for. The next steps will arise from your conversations. The second way is to connect with an organization already doing this work. In this arena Fair Vote Canada (fairvote.ca/) has the clear mandate but there may be other organizations you prefer. Go to their website, read their material and join them - actually join them. Take the actions they suggest.
There is a shared responsibility to act. We must approach engagement from a shared leadership approach. When you can't get a babysitter or are sick and can't attend an event it's great to know that the other people you've been building relationships with will easily fill in the gaps. To act is an individual responsibility but since we all share the same individual responsibility we can spread out the burden as we are able so that it actually work inside of our lives.
We cannot let Trudeau and cynicism win the day. We as citizens must reassert our place in the contest for power at the heart of democracy. Whatever cause ignites you, whatever you care about whatever you are fighting for will never come to pass in a country where politicians take citizens for granted or where citizens take politicians for granted. Contact your friends, get together at a local cafe and start talking. Let's leave our houses and breath life into our ideals again.
Nathan Carey
