Continuing Conversations with Canadians Part II

James Travers had an excellent column in the Toronto Star on Saturday, looking at Canadian democracy. He argues that Canadian democracy is moving in the wrong direction, and that we have to start paying attention if we don't want to lose our democracy.

Travers details the evolution of our political system to centralize power in the Prime Minister's Office, minimize the role of parliament, and to break the links between voters and politicians. He highlights the examples of David Emerson crossing the floor just days after being elected as a Liberal to take a seat as a Conservative cabinet minister, and the role played by RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli in the 2006 election with a letter announcing an investigation of the Liberals for rumoured leaks of a budget decision.

He also notes the increasingly politicized role of senior civil servants, who are expected to protect the political career of their boss rather than provide good advice.

"Without meaningful engagement, participatory democracy is an oxymoron," he concludes. "Why vote if the winning candidate then switches sides? Why be a member of a powerless Parliament? Why be a minister in a cabinet without influence or a mandarin in a politically polluted bureaucracy? Why join a party to be a spectator?"

Scholars like Helena Catt and Samuel Huntington have described democracy as non-static and non-linear. Countries are not either democratic or undemocratic, they can have deep democracy or shallow democracy. They can be moving towards greater democracy, or become increasingly less democratic over time. Simply having elections, a multi-party system and a free press doesn't mean that Canada has achieved all there is to achieve in terms of democracy.

It is easy to be complacent about our democracy. Canada has been an increasingly democratic country since our birth in 1867, with the gradual extension of the vote to every Canadian citizen. No one has seized power, electoral corruption has been minimal, and regular transfers of power occur.

But there are many more indicators of how deep our democracy is, and as Travers argues, on many of those indicators we're not moving in the right direction. As Canadians, we need to start having serious conversations about our democracy and what kind of country we want to be.

The answer, according to Travers, must involve advocacy, citizens reasserting their role and reminding the politicians of their accountability. "Appealing as it sounds, advocacy requires effort. It's so much easier to go with the flow, to let situational democracy evolve with each reflex, stopgap, jerry-rigged response to every new policy demand and political threat. But that leads away from accountability and toward the Big Man culture that Africa is finally throwing off and has no place in Canada."