Canada: What Does Our Democracy Look Like?

I am voting this election. And I hope that if you’re eligible to vote that you will too.

But I know that my vote is relatively benign because I am voting in a safe Liberal riding. Don’t get me wrong: I’m very grateful that I’m not in a safe Conservative riding. But still, it is mildly disheartening to know that my vote doesn’t really count. I know that voting is only one way to participate in a democracy. In fact, it is really a small part of it and takes place much less frequently in some other nations. I have increasingly put effort into other actions over the past few years, like calling and writing to my Member of Parliament (MP), party leaders, ministers, and the Prime Minister (PM) himself, to tell them what matters to me.

Some Canadians live in ridings in which there is a close race between the candidates and can make a big difference by casting their vote this election. Sites like 17votes and Project Democracy demonstrate how as few as 17 votes can decide who wins a riding. So, you should all go VOTE! But ultimately, my vote won’t change anything in my riding. My vote can help one of the political parties receive funding in the future (unless Harper scraps that law in his quest for autarchy). I’ve considered some strategic voting initiatives such as Vote Pair and Vote Swap, but since I need to mail in my special ballot, I am running out of time to find a match. In sum, I've realized that simply casting a vote on election day is not enough and I've been considering others ways to be democratically engaged.

I’ve been thinking about what our democracy looks like and have decided that we need to change. One change that is desperately needed in order to ensure more votes count: electoral reform! There are organizations working towards this goal, such as Fair Vote Canada. We should all learn more about the issue, then get involved and support them in order to make more of our votes count. Electoral reform would also help combat so-called “voter apathy”. Here’s a new approach to the idea of apathy:

In this TEDTalk, Meslin presents a compelling explanation for “apathy”, claiming that inaction is often due to multiple obstacles and barriers in society.

While electoral reform is important, we need to rethink what is happening between election campaigns. Canadians need to see voting as only a part of democracy and need to take action in other ways. We need to call our MPs, email our party leaders and contact relevant ministers. We need to protest, sign petitions and write to our newspapers regarding issues that matter to us and our neighbours. There are numerous other ways to get involved on a local level, such as joining neighbourhood associations, participating in community events and your municipal government, and engaging in your community. While these are all great ways to get involved, for the purpose of this post, I'm focusing specifically on federal politics.

Social media is the tool that youth (among other Canadians) are currently using to express themselves. We are using the internet to to spark change, spread information, support organizations and encourage each other. Among other initiatives: vote mobs, songs, tweets, emails, blogs, YouTube, websites, and comics. It’s all pretty awesome.

Leadnow’s Declaration of Change showed that Canadians are interested in getting involved. Participants indicated a desire for more direct avenues to participate in our democracy:

• Create an open government plan to increase transparency and accountability

• Initiate a citizen-led process for a referendum on electoral reform

• Make it easier for people to participate directly in government decision-making

So yes, the movement to get out the vote on May 2 is important. But what if Canadians also called and wrote to their MPs? What if we did this not just before, but also AFTER the election. What if we wrote to our local newspapers as a way to share our opinions with others in our communities? It’s probably much easier for politicians like Stephen Harper when the electorate doesn’t offer many loud and/or united voices. So, let’s make it difficult. Social media is only the first step (albeit a significant one). 
We need to engage with people outside of our relatively progressive and informed youth/student community. We need to make this mainstream.

Intellectual Noam Chomsky has been critical of the expression “speak truth to power” and I think his reasoning should inform the movement to improve our democracy in Canada.

Chomsky elaborated in a 2010 interview in response to the questions: "Finally, why have you criticised the formula 'to speak truth to power,' which was used by the late Edward Said to describe the role of intellectuals?"

That's actually a Quaker slogan, and I like the Quakers and I do a lot of things with them, but I don't agree with the slogan. First of all, you don't have to speak truth to power, because they know it already. And secondly, you don't speak truth to anybody, that's too arrogant. What you do is join with people and try to find the truth, so you listen to them and tell them what you think and so on, and you try to encourage people to think for themselves.

The ones you are concerned with are the victims, not the powerful, so the slogan ought to be to engage with the powerless and help them and help yourself to find the truth. It's not an easy slogan to formulate in five words, but I think it's the right one.

So while we can call out corporations and politicians, we need to speak to people. We should definitely tell politicians what to do since they work for the electorate. But we need to speak to, and learn from, each other. We especially need to engage with those Canadians who aren’t likely to read posts about #cndpoli or be tweeting about the #elxn41.

As I finish writing this post, I’ve found a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Predictably this event appeared in my Facebook News Feed: I Pledge to Talk ShitHarperDid.com. (For those who are unfamiliar with this site, check out this post from last week or go straight to the source). The event calls for participants to not only tweet and post about politics (specifically Harper’s transgressions), but to actually TALK about it in real life. Below is text directly from the event:

We've already gone viral on the internet, now it's time to go viral on the original internet, IE. real life.

✔STEP.1

Pledge that every day between now and May.2nd you will tell a friend, family member or stranger one thing Stephen Harper has done, which you consider to be unacceptable.

✔STEP.2

Tell us about conversations you've had by sharing your experience on the event wall.

✔STEP.3

Invite your friends to this event!

✔STEP.4*

VOTE! Fri. Apr.22 / Sat.Apr.23 / Mon.Apr.25 / Mon.May.2

We should all do this all the time! Let’s talk about Harper. Let’s also talk about Ignatieff, Layton, May and Duceppe. Let’s talk about our local MPs, electoral reform, climate change and war. Let’s be part of more than a voter movement: let’s take part in some extra-ordinary direct democracy!

And for your viewing enjoyment, the latest video from ShitHarperDid.com:

"Stephen Harper is an Evil Astronaut" reminds us why we’re currently holding an election.

* There is still time to vote by special ballot (inside or outside Canada).