Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, May 24, 2013

Forget federal and provincial politics; the action is local

Municipal Canada is in shambles. Toronto’s Rob Ford may the most egregious example, but there are many others. From Montreal and Quebec City to Winnipeg and Mississauga, mayors across the country are as dysfunctional a bunch as you could find.

Whether we’re talking allegations of corruption, conflict of interest or a video that appears to show crack-smoking, chief magistrates across the land are suddenly the object of national if not international attention.

Though many are shocked and appalled by recent revelations, the truth is that, unlike federal and provincial politics, it’s at the civic level that Canadians feel free to be themselves and show who they really are.

Given that fully 80 per cent of us live in towns and cities, two-thirds in the major metropolitan areas, it’s municipalities that provide the most accurate picture of 21st-century Canada.

After all, only the voters of Calgary Southwest actually get to vote for Prime Minister Stephen Harper; the rest of us can only watch with dismay and cast a ballot for his local cipher. It’s the same thing at the provincial level; only people in the premier’s riding get to vote directly for him or her.

By contrast, all Canadians can vote for the mayor of the community in which they live. That’s why Ford won the 2010 mayoral election with 383,501 votes. Compare that to the 42,998 ballots cast for Harper in 2011.

In other words, compared to what happens nationally or provincially, civic elections are up close and personal, even visceral. As we have been told many times, all politics are local.

Though we are increasingly outraged by the sheer meanness and arrogance of Harper’s behaviour, it doesn’t affect garbage pick-up, the cost of parking, bicycle lanes or user fees at the neighbourhood swimming pool. These are the issues that matter most to many Canadians. Federal politics and foreign affairs gets bigger play in the media, and are probably more interesting to talk about, but municipal politics get to the heart of who we are.

And what it tells us isn’t particularly flattering.

Turns out the Great Metropolitan North is a patchwork of urban centres divided against themselves; the apathetic on one side, the angry on the other. It seems either we couldn’t care less about the places in which we live, or else they fill us with rage.

In Mississauga, for instance, the country’s longest-serving mayor, Hazel McCallion, is returned in elections that bring out less than one-quarter of eligible voters. Though Her Worship must defend herself regularly against conflict of interest charges involving her son, she gets a free ride from Mississaugans.

Ford, a city-hating mayor who has made Toronto an object of derision around the planet continues to enjoy considerable support from a population in sync with his anti-urban attitudes. Nothing Ford does can deter his supporters, who would be quick to crucify any other politician caught in similar situations.

Behind the self-effacing façade of politeness and moderation, it turns out we Canadians are a pretty unhappy lot, more seething than soothed, less engaged than enraged, turned off rather than on.

Though we aren’t enthusiastic about federal and provincial politicians, what they do unfolds at a distance. Whereas the nature of their power is abstract, municipal politics never rises above realism. Despite the crudeness of an electoral system that allows huge chunks of the populace to go unrepresented, civic democracy feels messy and immediate.

What we see is what we get, even if the video hasn’t yet been made public.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Christopher Hume 

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