An Oz View of the Canadian Political Culture

This opinion piece out of Australia, written by a Canadian is a terrific compilation of the sad state of the Canadian political culture and the decline of our democracy.

The essence of Canadian disengagement and the consequential political atrophy and decline of our democracy  is captured in this paragraph:

Edmund Burke noted that all that was necessary for evil to triumph was for good men to do nothing. Canadians are certainly good and worthy folks, but they suffer an excess of civil obedience, politeness and lack of civic rage that could be harnessed to combat political atrophy. At a time when Arabs risk life and limb for political freedoms, Canadians seem largely apathetic about the erosion of their democracy.


We are in an election.  They matter.  The results determine how we will be governed and by whom.  The results determine the quality of character of the leadership and by default, the country, both internally and to the rest of the world.  The election results impact the daily lives or each and everyone of us.  It will set a tone that directs and even determines the nature and nurture of our personal and national dreams and aspirations.  


Elections matter.


Any conscientious and concerned Canadian must realize this and get informed and engaged in determining the outcome of this election.  Reflect on the admonition of Edmund Burke above.  Overcome your apathy.







Then take a few more minutes to read and reflect on David Akin's excellent column in the Sun newspapers today.  "Bad Governments are Elected by Good People Who Don't Vote."  Dust of your citizenship.  Demand a country you can be proud of again and make it happen by electing people of character who see political like as all about public service not the pursuit and practice of personal political power. 

CBC Vote Compass Worth a Visit

Here is the link to the CBC Vote Compass survey. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/votecompass/ 

I really encourage you to take the survey.  What political party mostly aligns with your values and beliefs this election?  I was surprised - but not unpleasantly - when I turned out to be more Green than Liberal.  I was not surprised to find myself the farthest from the Harper Conservatives.It is a good conversation starter - especially with ones self.  Where does your political alignment fit this time around.  What political party is the closest to your sense of what is important, at least in terms of the questions asked.

By the time I post this I expect over half a million Canadians will have taken the Vote Compass survey.  That is an interesting expression of citizenship engagement in itself.  It indicates to me that at least CBC types are prepared to participate in a meaningful conversation about politics - even if only with themselves.  It also takes us away from the less meaningful left versus right sense of being political these days.  The issues and the value trade-offs we have to make between competing issues can't be conveniently packaged as left or right any more.  Most people don't know what it means to be left or right any more and those of us who do understand the dichotomy find the classification less useful or accurate in capturing the basket of values that any one individual actually has and holds these days.

I hope we will get some aggregate data released out of the CBC on the Vote Compass responses perhaps by province and cities - even by ridings if there is a large enough sample to be meaningful - since they asked for postal codes. How many Greens are there in Calgary for example.  How many Canadians feel the oil sands environmental concerns are exaggerated?  There are a lot more things we can focus on from this data to get a sense of where Canadians are at

Any insights and analysis will not be a statistically valid random sample but it will still have value to provide insights on those who took the time to participate. On-line communities form function and fade around issues and events...including an election.  This Vote Compass vehicle creates an opportunity for Meet Ups and Tweet Ups to happen between like minded or contrary minded people to discuss explore and even reconsider positions in conversations with other citizens.

This kind of exchange of opinions and ideas in face to face respectful conversations are so much more meaningful for citizens than partisan hype spin or "messaging" of traditional tedious and tendentious campaign events.

The CBC brings so much of Canada together through radio and television programming.  Now it might consider doing the same thing but in a much more participatory way.  By using the Vote Compass device as a way to spark some significant sense of citizenship in communities and even across the .country around issues of importance - not the superficial stuff like the coalition baiting we see being covered these days.

Who Really Cares About Harper's Fixation on Coalition

The perpetual, persistent and perverse pejorative about Stephen Harper in this election are his well documented pursuit of personal political power.  His proven Contempt for Parliament, the first time this have ever happened in Canada, reflects badly on his respect for Canadian democracy and his personal integrity.  He is all politics all the time in a single-minded pursuit of absolute political power.  We all know what the consequences of absolute political power has been through history.

His two-faced approach to policy is breath taking, from demanding an elected Senate to personally appointing the most Senators of any Prime Minister in the history of the country.  He demands smaller accountable fiscally responsible government and yet he has created the biggest fiscal deficit in peace time. He talks of tax cuts and he raises taxes on the poorest of Canadians.  He insists on further unnecessary corporate tax cuts in the face of deficits and a recession gripping the nation.

Speaking of the 2008 recession, which we are still in, Harper denied that it was even happening.  He knew better but avoided responding appropriately to the urgency until forced by facts to tell the truth and act responsibly.  He reluctantly put the stimulus spending in place and then took too long to get it out the door as he politically steered funds into seats that his party holds.  Since then Harper has spent unprecedented millions of tax dollars, to advertise his "accomplishments" from the deficit inducing stimulus spending.

Harper is now haranguing and harping on the dire consequences of a coalition government in the early days of the campaign.  It is clear in Harperland any coalition of "second place losers" (like he was in the Martin minority government) is ok if it makes him Prime Minister.  Hypocritically Harper dallied with a coalition with the Bloc and the NDP in 2004 to defeat the Martin minority government in order to make him Prime Minister.  A coalition is not ok in Harper's mind if it results in a collaboration of other political leaders who are looking out for the good of the country and thwarting his lust for the absolute power of a majority government.

I read the Sun newspaper "Exclusive" coverage of their QMI commissioned Leger poll today on the reaction of Canadians to Harpers wall-to-wall coalition rant with great amusement.  It provides some serious insight why Harper is talking about coalitions as a threat.  It is all being done to incite his base to show up and support him even though he has bullied his MPs and repeatedly abused the Conservative party principles.

The Conservative Party wants political power too and this election is their last best hope.  Past and present polls show Harper is only able to eke out another minority election result.  Hence the Leger poll shows the 95% of Conservatives fear a coalition government.  It is their worst fear.  On the other hand about 2/3 of Liberals , NDP and Bloc supporters see coalitions as a normal and legitimate option to govern if the Canadian voters insist that no one leader or party is compelling enough to be given a majority government.

The concern over a coalition is a political wedge issue.  It is not a wedge between Harper and Ignatieff as Stephen would have you believe and the mainstream media promulgate.  It is a wedge issue between Harper and his Caucus and the Conservative Party membership.  This is because Harper has been anything but a true Conservative Prime Minister as this link illustrates.

He has alienated his Reform base by pandering to Quebec.  He betrays fiscal Conservative principles by spending the country into enormous debt and deficits while at the same time he grows government in size and in its role in "interfering" in our lives.  All this stuff fundamentally contrary to his espoused Conservative Principles of the party he leads.  His party base no longer trusts him but they fear another minority government even more, because they risk seeing political power going to a coalition of  "the others."  Harper is playing on those fears in his own party.  Canadians could care less as Christian Bourque of Leger Marketing points out saying "The coalition does not really shake the electorate when it comes to who they support."  It is not a top issue for Canadians and not going to move votes.

It is only Conservatives who are concerned about the consequences of a coalition government.  Harper's top down, command and control centralized imperialist approach to politics concentrates power in himself.  He uses fear of "the others" actually forming a coalition government as a zero sum political game for enforcing compliance and sustaining power for himself and his partisans. If Harper can't get a majority government from the Canadian voters this time, his leadership of the CPC party and role as Prime Minister of Canada is over.  He knows this and his base knows it.  The base is not going to stay behind Harper unless he wins a majority government this time out.  Three minority governments is three strikes and that means Harper is out.

Canadians who care enough about our democracy, our political system, our citizenship, our rights and freedoms to show up an vote will decide if Harper will still be Prime Minister of Canada after this election.  Our decision to accept him continuing a Prime Minister will be based on our collective assessment of his ethics, character, trustworthiness, integrity, accountability, transparency and honesty.  Harper's record shows he had failed us on all counts.

If Canadians decide, in our collective wisdom, to return yet another minority government, it will be the fourth in seven years.  That would be a strong message to the Governor General that "the others" should be given a chance to govern in a coalition.   Cooperation, collaboration and accommodation of different points of view are embedded in the Canadian DNA.  A coalition government is only a crisis for Conservatives not for Canadians.  It is time for the election focus to move on and politicians to start talking about the real issues facing Canada and Canadians.  A real issue is not Harper's artificial angst over "the others" gathering together to run the country collaboratively instead of letting him ruin it unilaterally.

Will Citizens of Alberta Show Up and Make a Difference?

I can understand why many citizens think voting is a waste of time.  Graham Thomson picks up on this theme in his column today and chastises citizen indifference to our democracy.  As my friend Stephen Murgatroyd likes to say, "It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always get in." Regular readers know I like to say "The world is run by those who show up."

I feel very strongly that our democracy is not only in deficit, it is in danger.  Our political culture has become a manipulation of misleading messages driven by aggression and adversarial anger.  I am occasionally accused of feeding the culture of aggression with my comments and concerns about the decline of civility and greater purpose in out politics.  I  know that is true at times but the escalating verbal violence and contempt for values perpetrated by Stephen Harper is pure bullying and must be opposed.

Caring compassion and taking responsibility for something greater than self interest is seen by many activist political Libertarians as the weak actions of chumps.  We see collaboration and cooperation as lesser values than  the winners and losers culture of pure market place competition.  It is a very dangerous and simplistic view of how we must face a globalized interdependent networked reality of the world we now live in.  We have complex problems that simplistic approaches create more harm than workable solutions.

We see humility in political leadership as a weakness not a brave act of quality character.  Wisdom is mocked as aggressive action is elevated as a more appropriate response to our intractable problems.    We need to elect politicians and value leaders who can step out of rigid ideological positions.  We need a political culture of curiosity and possibility not dogma and doctrine.  We need decision maker who have respect for different perspectives and can actually see, value and adopt different inputs as appropriate.

Democracy in Alberta and especially in Canada is broken. Albertans are taken for granted by the Harper government.  It is our fault.  It will only be fixed if we citizens take back control of democracy in Alberta.  We can't afford to defer to a power hungry politician like Stephen Harper who show consistent contempt for Canadian/Albertan democratic values. Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador knew this last election when, as a Progressive Conservative, he headed his ABC (Anybody But Conservative) campaign.  It is time for the rest of Canada to see that values and character count in politics.  We need a government that we can respect and that respects us. This is the election to heed Danny Williams and make that change happen in Alberta this election.  Don't settle for second class citizenship.  Send Harper a message that he con no longer take our support for granted.  

Inspiration to Engage Progressive Albertans.

I really like politics, especially when it is about people using their skills and capacity in pursuit of a greater good that goes beyond self interest.  I meet those kind of people all the time, especially when I personally engage in that kind of transcendent behaviour.

I had the chance to meet someone online in the Glenn Taylor leadership campaign for the Alberta Party today.  They shared a quote at the end of an email that captured that power of positive politics and its potential for a personal transcendent experience beyond the self. The quote captures so much of what I think constitutes the core of the Alberta Aspiration.  It moves us beyond and above the lowered expectations inherent in the Alberta Advantage:

"If you're going to be passionate about something, be passionate about learning. If you're going to fight something, fight for those in need. If you're going to question something, question authority. If you're going to lose something, lose your inhibitions. If you're going to gain something, gain respect and confidence. And if you're going to hate something, hate the false idea that you are not capable of your dreams."

Daniel Golston

Albertans are looking for enlighten progressive political leadership.  We have a federal election upon us, a provincial election looming and three of our political parties in the throes of leadership campaigns.  There is lots of opportunity for Albertans to take the spirit of this quote and apply as we decide who to vote for and why we are voting for them with all these opportunities.  We can also use this spirit of this quote to judge the quality, character and integrity of the various candidates who are seeking our consent to govern.

Words to live by and apply.  Have a good weekend gentle readers.