Gone are the norms for decorum and political process. Swept away by constant bloviating, obstructionism, open disrespect, disinformation and personal smears.
While politics has always been fraught with conflict, generally reality wasn’t debated or created through discourse.
Democracy is a tricky concept to define. A few believe it’s limited to free and fair voting. Voting makes up a tangible part of democracy, but overall, democracy is a belief system. So it’s abstract in nature and difficult to fit into a narrow universal definition.
Democracy can be interpreted several ways by people with vast differences in ideology & values. And that ability to shift the meaning of democracy to reflect ideological belief systems always makes defining democracy tricky.
But in Canada, the definition was stable for decades.
That is until support for conservatism began to wane.
Canada started off as a conservative offshoot of the British Empire. Staunch, rigid, Eurocentric, and categorically British in nature.
Over time, the cultural zeitgeist became more liberal, humanist, moderate.
After WW2, Canada was defined by its banality, politeness, explicit humanism and its hodgepodge social safety net.
Known as the globe’s peacekeepers and for our conciliatory and moderate nature.
Who knew this branding was objectionable to the conservative far right?
There have been Prime Ministers that have redefined Canadian culture. Many would say for the better. Lester Pearson & Pierre Trudeau come to mind. They shared a vision of Canada that was a democratically robust, pluralist, mosaic of people with shared citizenship & human rights.
Democracy in Canada was defined by mid 20th century Liberals. Secular, with freedom for all faiths. Principled, with flexibility to adapt to modern needs and pressures. Stable, with defined rights and freedoms to encourage individuals & communities affirm their values & beliefs.
This was the Canada I grew up in and knew, loved and appreciated. For all its warts of past errors in judgement, Canada became almost an ideal. A refuge for all and a safe stable democracy to work towards social equality and democratic ideals.
But what were those ideals. What was the democracy Canada offered?
Intangible and abstract, we took them for granted and they are now under severe threat.
Democracy is fragile. It’s a narrow set of beliefs and behaviours that reflect those beliefs.
Trust is crucial to democracy. There’s no democracy if there’s no trust between citizens & leaders.
Democracy is entrusting elected representatives to govern in the best interests of all citizens. We may not agree on how, but we trust the greater good is the guiding principle.
Compromise is also foundational to democracy. If the best interests of all are the benchmark, compromise is a requirement. You know walking in you won’t get everything you want, but you’ll get enough to keep society functioning & peaceful.
Cooperation is required. Conflict is a part of politics and pluralism only aggravates the potential for conflict. So agreeing to ultimately cooperate for the good of all is essential.
Rule of Law is an extension of cooperation. We must all agree that the rule of law is paramount to ensure peace and stability. The laws apply to all equally. And we agree to uphold the laws to ensure reliability and consistency to all citizens. This reduces conflict.
Political Agency is afforded to every individual. Not just those who qualify to vote. Every resident of Canada, regardless of age, gender, race or sexuality has the ability to voice opinions, call for political action and seek to have their individual and community’s needs met.
Fairness is required for democracy. Inequities, hierarchies, special privileges, inconsistency in rule of law, all put pressure on a society. Reducing those pressures are conducive to strong democratic norms being adopted. Increasing pressures reduces commitment to democracy.
Facts are required for democracy. Democracy cannot function if reality is not established.
We can disagree on how to address reality, but if we don’t agree on what is fact and what is fiction, democracy is impossible to be established.
Concession to decision making is required to achieve democracy. Every political group (political party, special interest group, lobbyist, community) must agree to concede when a decision is made. Society can’t function if decisions aren’t made. All must respect final decisions.
Consideration is also a required element of democracy. Unless all individuals, groups and special interests acknowledge and tolerate plurality, democracy cannot be achieved.
Political Dissent is a crucial element to establish democracy. The ability to provide feedback to decisions made by govt is essential. But there are defined limits to methods of dissent. Obstruction isn’t dissent, it’s impeding a decision. Dissent is persuasion not coercion.
If these elements are observed and supported by the citizenry and elected leaders, a democratic society exists. In the absence of any one or more, it is a variation of autocracy.
So it’s always a curiosity to me that some people argue that because they continue to believe in democracy, that makes our province or nation democratic.
But that’s not how democracy works.
If the people in power don’t explicitly support democracy, it no longer exists.
Regardless of your personal beliefs and values, the absence of democratic beliefs by leadership negates any belief the citizenry has.
You cannot continue to call dictatorial leadership democratic. Well you can, but that is called deluded thinking. Refusing to accept reality.
And that is Alberta’s current situation.
UCP has destroyed trust, refused to compromise or cooperate with opposition, mocked rule of law and political agency, eliminated fairness and facts, refused to concede to public pressure, rejected plurality, & tried to eliminate dissent.
You’re deluded if you continue to believe Alberta continues to be a democracy. The party elected has attacked democracy on every front. Alberta has significantly shifted to autocratic governance.
Examine your own beliefs and stop trying to define your own reality.
The minister assessed the situation and called it a fundamental impasse.
There is no middle ground. The demands by both parties are so disparate, a stalemate was declared by the minister since the impact of the inability to move forward in negotiations impacts all Canadians.
Note that the minister is invoking his legitimate codified authority to secure peace and impose short term and long term solutions. Those solutions will be in the national interest of all Canadians.
Meaning the govt will not be siding with one party or another.
What part of YOU ARE NOT THE GOVERNING PARTY does MP Chong not understand?
Why is this a problem?
Because MP Chong is advocating for foreign govts to decide controversial federal elections.
Anyone aware of any elections in the next few months that may be contested?
Chong is trying to set the precedent that recognition by foreign govts can decide disputed elections for control of the nation.
That’s not democracy.
Democracy is when Venezuelans choose their leader and pick democracy themselves.
Canada does not decide the legitimacy of foreign elections.
Weird how Chong would promote Canada deciding who to recognize as the official leader of Venezuela so close to the American election in November. The one Trump is all but guaranteed to refuse to accept the results.
These type of events are going to become more common across western civilization. You need to prepare yourself & your network. The far right is baiting it’s own supporters to create angry mobs & riots using disinformation on X/Twitter.
This is how powerful social media has become. It’s been developed by Elmo into a weapon of war. Hybrid warfare creating local violent mobs.
Governments and police should be warning people right now.
Please read the embedded articles.
This is how much control those seeding disinformation on social media actually have. The medium provides for weaponization by manipulation of vulnerable people. By just using disinformation shared on social media, riots can be produced from partial truth and cultivated hatred.
As Jasper burns, Danielle Smith and her putrid UCP cronies have launched the bots and trolls to assign blame on federal govt.
Canada doesn’t have a federal firefighting force except for the armed forces.
Smith cut the budget and is now forcing the rest of Canada to support firefighting in Alberta.
That’s right Canada. (See you auntie) DS has saved Albertans from paying taxes to fight fires. Revenues from O&G royalties are sent to The Alberta Heritage Fund to invest in more O&G.
Don’t ya know, banks can’t finance O&G projects openly at sufficient levels anymore. So instead of royalties being used to benefit Albertans, they are being set aside to reinvest in O&G when financial institutions are completely unable to invest in development of O&G resources.