A Country Divided, A People Confused
We are not having a Constitutional crisis. The Constitution is fine. No one is threatening to separate from the country. No one is breaking Constitutional law. No one is overthrowing the state. At least not yet.
What we are having is a leadership crisis. Unfortunately, leadership is not something we can fix through legislation or Constitutional reform. It requires nurturing, belief and luck. And since we have not been very good at nurturing new leaders to take us into the new millennium, we will have to resort to blind faith and rolling the dice.
But this isn’t the only problem that confronts us. Over the past few days two things have become evident about the people of Canada, and neither of them are pretty. For one, it has become clear that we live in a nation divided. While the usual rhetoric of Quebec separatism has been thrust into the spotlight once again, it is not a French-English divide that is now tearing at the fabric of the Canadian identity. The new dividing line can now be found somewhere within the bounds of Manitoba. The East-West divide is not one based on language, but rather…something else. Being from the east, I cannot really say what the western perspective is, but I do know that when I am in Alberta I have a distinct feeling that those around me do not share my assumptions about how life works.
It has also become clear that Canadians are confused. Try as we might to blame the politicians for this, the confusion is no one’s fault but our own. The level of interest and engagement by most Canadians in our political process has become so low as to risk the very foundations of our democracy. People do not understand the difference between the Canadian and American forms of government. People do not understand the difference between politicians and the public service. People do not understand the difference between voting and democracy. These are very important concepts that hold together the notion that is Canada. Without a common understanding of what they mean and how they bind us together, Canada becomes nothing more than a bunch of individuals living in general proximity to each other.
Is Canada on the verge of collapse? Not a chance. But we are on the verge of opening up a heated and controversial debate over the role of government in our lives and the virtues of remaining a country united. We owe it to ourselves to become informed so we can have an informed debate. We owe it to ourselves to empathize with our fellow citizens, so they can have empathy for us. We owe it to ourselves to become leaders in our own right.
canadasworld
reillyreads
davideaves
corsullivan
greenjenny
reneethewriter
adamfritz
canworldjon
nmboudin
marakardasnelson
Kaitlyn (Kat) Braybrooke
This is your finest piece – a pleasure to read; thought-provoking and surely, a call to arms for citizen led engagement and education.
As a “renegade lawyer,” as a university educated urban dweller, and a “transplated/immigrant/westerner” (Yee Haw) – i try and not get too “poncy” about, er, you know, brushing up on Civics 101 rather than, um, shopping (which i dearly love to do) but for pity’s sake, eh?
We Canadians must get our intellectual house in order. The Elgin Parliament! No Taxation without Representation! The War of 1812! The historical saga of how our unwritten constitution came to be repatriated. Etc.
What is it that the old union organizers exhorted us to do: “Sit down and read. Educate yourself for the coming troubles.”
Thank you, Adam,
Excellent points.
The interesting thing about relying on the formal education system to ensure that we are prepared for our civic responsibilities is that education is controlled by the provinces. The educations that Canadians receive are therefore different from province to province. This affected me personally as I changed provinces going into high school, and somehow missed ever having to take a course in Canadian history or how our political system works. I happen to be very curious and have taken it upon myself to figure out how things work, but it wasn’t until later in life.
As for the honesty and intentions of politicians, I happen to believe that most (but not all) politicians are honest and hard working people with very good intentions. It is a very hard lifestyle to lead, with very few rewards. That being said, it is also a profession that tends to attract people with significant egos and strong ideologies. Some people truly believe things that other people know to be false, while others will say anything to taste power.
The only way for Canadians to ensure that the honest and well intentioned politicians win the day is by educating ourselves so that we cannot be deceived by fabrications, and taking it upon ourselves to take part in the system through voting, volunteering, protesting, voicing our concerns, providing our ideas, and becoming politicians ourselves. Not doing any of this would be uncivilized.
Good summary.
I agree that ultimately the problem is our own, but the state has a big role to play as well: through our K-12 education system, our funding of post-secondary, awareness building campaigns, etc.
More fundamentally, our understanding can be spurred by politicians acting and speaking honestly and accurately about our system.
To me the question is: who is helping educate the public? Who is deceiving us?
Most politicians get failing grades (educating when it benefits them, staying silent when it doesn’t), but the way Harper uses lies and misinformation about our political system to whip up anger and fear is staggering.
The really frightening thing is that when politicians thrive on confusion and misinformation, they are being actively rewarded for under-educating the people and have an incentive to make the situation even worse.