The Samara Centre for Canadian Democracy just published their biennial "Democracy 360" report card on the health of Canada's democracy. It remained at a B-, which is perhaps not such a bad thing when you consider the state of democracy in the world seems to be in a fairly precarious place overall, and shows that Canada really isn't doing that bad. It's also not great, and there is a lot of room to improve, but it's also important to recall that their first report card in 2015 graded Canadian democracy a C, back in the days when everyone thought that then-prime minister Stephen Harper was a Bond Villain-esque "dictator," so the mood in the country has improved somewhat since then.
The report grades the country's democracy on three main areas political communications (which received an A), political participation (a mere C+), and political leadership (which merited a C). I was pleased to note that the participation index included factors like membership in a political party, attending a political meeting or speech, donating money to a political candidate or party, and volunteering for a candidate or campaign. These are all incredibly important measures as opposed to things like signing petitions or attending a protest, which give people the feeling that they're doing something, but in order to make meaningful change, Canadians need to engage inside the system, which means parties.
This having been said, some of the scores in those categories are abysmal. A mere eight percent of Canadians belong to a political party down from 9 percent in 2014. This is the most fundamental entry point into politics in our system, not only with nomination races and determining which names will wind up on your local ballot, or with determining a party's policy platform, but not even one in ten people take advantage of this. Part of this failing can be chalked up to our appalling civic illiteracy these things aren't taught in school, and why it's important. I'm never sure if this is some perceived discomfort with the notion of partisan politics, despite the fact that it's what makes our democracy vital (and note that partisanship does not necessarily mean the tribal warfare that it is degenerating into south of the border), or whether there is this fear that telling people to join parties is somehow seen as picking sides or that they would inadvertently advertise their own preferences along the way.
Less than a third of Canadians have attended a political meeting? This is a problem. A mere twenty-one percent of Canadians have donated money? Even with the overly generous tax credits that are available? Again, this is a little disheartening because it means that people aren't willing to put their money where their beliefs are. A slightly smaller amount, 19 percent of Canadians, have volunteered for a campaign or a candidate? And this figure is up from a mere 15 percent in 2016 that's similarly appalling, because politics runs on volunteers. It's no wonder that we ranked a mere C+ on this particular index.
The report cites three main recommendations for improving our democratic score going forward and the first is self-evidently better civic literacy, because dear gods on Olympus, we're bad at this. But the other two recommendations are a bit more complex, the first of which touches on some very key points:
Equip governing institutions for better decision-making by empowering elected representatives to exert greater individual influence over the legislative process, making policy decisions more transparent and accountable, and allowing for substantive deliberation on policy issues, rather than scripted and polarizing debate. Elected representatives need to have the independence, capacity, and tools to contribute meaningfully to the work of governing.
Part of what is at the heart of these this recommendation is a structure fix in our politics that goes unspoken here, because I'm not sure it's a cause that Samara is eager to take up, which is reforming leadership contests in this country.
Our bastardized leadership selection system means that parties have become hollowed out in favour of personality cults surrounding the leaders, and MPs are expected to fall into line under them. It's the kind of thing that reduces MPs to drones who read prepared speeches on demand and who feel it's their job to stand up and clap to "support the leader." Dissent is discouraged, if not outright bullied out of them. Even the media polices party loyalty and the moment an MP (or their provincial counterparts) step out of line, we have reporters and columnists demanding that they be booted from caucus. Every single time. How is this any way to run a democracy where the representatives are encouraged to make decisions, and to have substantive or deliberative debate, let alone have the independence or capacity to contribute meaningfully to the work of governing?
This boils down to the leadership system, because as it stands, leaders feel that there is a "democratic legitimacy" bestowed upon them that supersedes that of the MPs, and too many of the MPs actually believe it. That's why MPs feel powerless in holding their leaders to account within their own parties, let along Parliament as a whole, and it manifests itself in their constantly debasing themselves because they're told to. Even grassroots members believe it, as their policy debates are dismissed on a whim by the leader's office. We cannot improve democracy in this country so long as this system remains in place, and so long as people defend it as being "more democratic" than the proper system of caucus selection. We can't have democracy without accountability, and basing the system on one without the other has given us the disastrous system we are now dealing with.
The final recommendation deals with having enough civic and media literacy to engage in an election and afterward without falling victim to things like disinformation campaigns something that we should also remember given the fact that lies are now the common currency of certain political leaders, and nobody seems to want to call them on it, including members of the media. Yes, we have a lot to do to improve the situation of our democracy in this country, but that requires being clear-eyed about where the problems are something that Samara pussyfoots around to its detriment.
Photo Credit: CTV News
