Bill Freeman - Democracy Rising: Politics and Participation in Canada

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Contents

Foreword

No Is a Very Powerful Word in Politics

We find ourselves in a position where the politics of NO has become the most powerful democratic force. It defies ideology, is both harnessed and unleashed by technology, and has surrendered politics and democracy to a constant state of referendum. It produces simple responses to complex questions and replaces facts with opinions. Slogans matter more than principles.

The science of politics missed this transformation. The art of politics has all but disappeared. The business of politics has taken over now, from consumer tracking and data mining to perpetual fundraising and never-ending campaigns. Politics is only about winning and losing.

Governing has effectively become a business too. Decisions are measured as deals and transaction, politicians branded and prepped for market, citizens asked for input at election time and then left alone until next shopping season. This process is almost designed to breed cynicism. As people disengage other forces take over, and government becomes even easier to ignore. Its as if society is on autopilot.

It isnt.

Never before has the fragility of modern democracy been laid so bare. The problem seems most acute in the English-speaking world, but we are fooling ourselves if recent events in France, Austria, and the Netherlands are not equally disturbing. The rise of populist demagogues, nationalist movements that seek to close borders and close minds to new ideas, are a direct result of the breakdown in the relationship between the governed and the government. Democracy is brittle and we seem determined to let it break, if not break it ourselves.

The danger of trying to rule ourselves this way is that all we do as a body politic, and all we seem to be good at these days, is breaking things; slashing taxes, cutting programs, ripping up treaties, stopping projects, and, of course, waging an endless war on spending. Its as if reform is impossible, compromise not a noble pursuit, and innovation beyond our capacity. Its a policy that rewards reactionaries and punishes people with ideas. Complexity is rarely tolerated.

In this book, Bill Freeman takes a look at how we got here. He proposes possible ways forward. He explores the roots of how we built our unique form of responsible government in Canada. He argues that we did it through democratic struggle. The process sometimes involved pamphlets and protest. It took rebellion. In the end, focused and principled determination delivered real change. Freeman also notes this remarkable evolution was achieved despite the presence of powerful vested interests at every point in history; he illustrates and champions the idea that it is possible to achieve social justice democratically, through organization from the ground up. He leaves us with the hope that it always was this way and always will be, but it takes more effort than just tweeting about a better tomorrow. It takes actual work.

The book is clear that democratically empowered communities have always had to fight against the entrenched power of a few. That the struggle may not always be obvious but it is a consistent dynamic. Recently this privileged minority has challenged collective action by fuelling a surge of individuality proclaimed as the fight for freedom. It has created new forms of leadership driven by the cult of personality. Freeman looks at how influential elites have acted in concert to reverse decades, if not a century, of reform. These cliques of entrenched interests have a lot to gain if democracy is broken. When not wielding the hammer themselves they are the willing distributors of the tools that allow society to undermine its own institution. The failure of government becomes evidence that government doesnt work, and then more damage can be done as fewer and fewer care.

Freeman is not naive. Nor does he pretend that opposition is not needed. The author is a veteran of organizing people and communities against some very bad ideas and terrible projects created and promoted by democratically elected governments. What Freeman presents is an idea critical for those who are fighting for democracy. The author links the building of political arguments to the act of building democratic society. The act of organizing people to wage campaigns for change is exactly how societies are formed. Its how healthy and progressive democratic governments are both created and sustained.

The act of saying yes is not just an option, its the responsibility that comes with the right to say no . You cant destroy whats wrong if youre not committed to creating something better. This is the essence of healthy democratic government.

Ideas are always more powerful than any ideology. Our fragile democracy can be made strong again.

Adam Vaughan

Member of Parliament, Spadina-Fort York

Introduction

In 2016 two political events have been like an earthquake, shaking the waters of public life. The first was the Brexit vote by the British people to leave the European Union, and the second was the long campaign of Donald Trump and his election to become the president of the United States.

Many political leaders, the corporate elite, and the media have been in a panic. All of their predictions have been wrong. Trump was dismissed at the beginning of the primaries as being a lightweight, and yet he went on to win the presidency of the most influential and powerful country in the world. Britains exit from the E.U. was thought to be so remote a possibility that a referendum was called to put the issue to rest. It was believed that ordinary people would not leap into the unknown and vote for political options that could lead to chaos and disaster, but in both instances the public defied the elites.

The media is still puzzling over what happened. They blame those who have been economically left behind and say that these votes point to the rising influence of right-wing politics. Age, ignorance, and gender are other factors, apparently. In both Britain and the United States, it was older males lacking post-secondary education who voted for these marginal candidates and causes. In fact, the roots are much broader and deeper than this.

There is a common element that runs through both of these events. Vast numbers of people are fed up with the elites who control the political process and engineer government policy for their own interests. Decisions are being made that threaten their jobs, their families, and their communities, and no one is listening to their concerns. They want it known that they are hurting, and that the political system is not working for them. People are struggling, and their children face a diminished future. They dont like it one bit.

But above all, they are tired of prosperous members of the elite telling them what is good for them and how they should be voting. They have rebelled in the only way they can the only way the system allows them to rebel by voting for a know-nothing, self-centred political demagogue, and by rejecting the E.U., a political power centred in Brussels that they know little about.

There is deep dissatisfaction among the followers of the left, right, and centre, and it goes through all parts of the developed world, Canada included. People are not happy with the cozy relationships their governments have with the elites. The message that they have delivered is that they want something done about the way governments are run, or there is going to be hell to pay.

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