I keep thinking about the idea of a “Rest from democracy” and how seductive that idea feels. I used to love elections, now the thought of one fills me with dread.
I miss the days when the NDP represented the progressive left with out of control spending on labor rights, ecology and throttling business; the LPC had a modicum of fiscal responsibility but generally centrists views stealing planks from the left and right when it was politically advantageous; and the CPC wanted smaller government, stronger military, and promoted family values and law and order. Now the LPC is left of the NDP and the CPC represents the working class and the NDP is just a lap dog to the LPC. WTF?
Democracy depends on an educated and engaged populace - which is why there's a push to stifle public education and amplify media brainwashing.
This piece got me thinking Churchill's comment about democracy. I've never come across a reason to disagree with it.
It turns out it wasn't original. Here's an excerpt from his speech to British Parliament in 1947:
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time; but there is the broad feeling in our country that the people should rule, continuously rule, and that public opinion, expressed by all constitutional means, should shape, guide, and control the actions of Ministers who are their servants and not their masters."
" where I was once excited about election campaigns, lately they mostly fill me with dread." I blame that entirely on the quality of leadership we have currently at all political levels, and could not agree with it more. Politics has gone from "Front Page Challenge" to the "Hollywood Squares".
Take a look at any country in the worlds that isn't a democracy and ask yourself if you'd want to live there permanently. Then, do the most basic thing in participation and hold your nose and vote. But vote...while you still can.
I always think that if I take a rest from democracy, the bad guys win.
I don't know who the bad guys are, but they do...
And on an side note, the only one I have not read is the Letto book. My father moved from Newfoundland to Canada in 1948, so I have had some interest in it.
This is a fine piece of writing, and it is done in a wonderfully readable style; moreover, it is a reminder that history may, indeed, have some lessons and can provide some perspective.
I only hope that historical study in our schools includes this kind of regional knowledge – which includes the challenges, the hopes, and yes the travails, that contributed to welding the country together, and that did not all occur in the Toronto-Montreal (“Laurentian”) axis.
Many thanks for the abridged history lesson, I knew nothing about the 'Commission of Government' era. And thanks for the book links - to that I have to add one of my favorite books, The Danger Tree by David McFarlane. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/944036, a family history that rolls up a good bit of the island history as it goes. It's fabulous, I've bought many of them over the years!
There is, of course, a difference between giving political squabbling a rest and giving democracy a rest. Britain did not cease to be a democracy during WW2, despite the fact that membership in Churchill's coalition cabinet owed nothing to party affiliation and everything to competence. In a time of national emergency, any man who didn't get things moving in his department could expect to be quickly replaced by someone more able, an assessment that made not the least appeal to political considerations.
As for the envy of Mussolini that's presumably intended to shock us, in 1933 this would clearly have been inspired by his success in getting trains to run on time--in short, by his economic and administrative competence--not by any particular admiration for what we subsequently came to know of fascism.
Thank you. I was unaware of this history., but it tracks.
The 1933 Amulree Report would seem to suggest several parallels with our situation today.
1. Out of touch wealthy elites running a 'representative' government that largely ruled over an largely illiterate, unsophisticated working class, and kept them in their place with a token public dole.
2. Economic strife, massive government debt, civil unrest, and open pining from supposed representatives of the people for an end to democracy, and a strongman (like Mussolini) to rule over them under a fascistic model.
3. The concentration of power to a small group of unelected wealthy men, coupled with the movement toward the abolishment of representative government.
4. The move toward anarchy only stemmed by a world war, and an empire who swooped in to consolidate the wayward colony to join the nearby larger colony (Canada) before another empire (USA) scooped it up for its resource and strategic wealth.
Today, we see elements of #1, #2, and #3 already occuring in Canada.
Power is consolidated in the Canadian PMO with a small group of unelected elites, and the Cabinet Ministers, MPs, Senators, and the Judiciary are de facto trained seals at best, and complete nullities otherwise. Youth, academia, and union activists pine for fascism, even when they don't understand what it means, accusing current opposition MP's of being fascists for criticizing our current 'Dear Leader'and his pack of trained seal MPs and 'independent' senators. A pandemic even gave the Dear Leader and his unelected elites in the PMO the chance to test drive fascism.
What remains is how #4 plays out. The world is indeed, again, alas, at the precipice of world war, though most of the Canadian population (and its 'leadership') are either unaware of it, or believe it will not affect us because 'the Americans will protect us'. Perhaps the USA will be the 'saviour empire' who step in to clean up our mess. Perhaps. There are other empires elsewhere in the world that have been operating in Canada with essential impunity. Those empires might have other designs on our strategic and resource wealth. What's crazy is that many Canadians would apparently be happiest if anyone but the Americans gradually, then suddenly, took over the remnants of what we still, for the moment, refer to as Canada. What is it they say about a frog in a boiling pot of water?
Even if the Americans turn out to be the empire who steps in, they're not exactly an inspiring democracy any longer, though I'd argue they're the best of the current choices on offer.
Now to figure out how to get my adult sons and nearly adult daughter to read this piece and understand it. I'm not optimistic.
Don’t confuse elections with democracy. It’s elections that have lead to the party politics that is destroying democracy.
This is exactly the point behind a random lottery to appoint political representatives rather than electing them.
Undemocratic? “Rule by the people” is the very definition of democratic!
Randomly selecting representatives can provide a statistically valid result for population representation (the whole point behind elections). There’s no need for anybody to know anything about them beforehand (as if that helps much anyway with elections as we have them now.).
Of course competence still matters, but I disagree strongly that elections provide any increase in competence vs. random selection.
As P.J. O’Rourke liked to say “You could pick any bunch of names from the phone book and it wouldn’t be any worse than the politicians we elect …”
This isn’t a new or fantastical idea. Appointment by lot is what was used in ancient Athens. You know, the place that coined the word “democracy”.
The idea is also regaining acceptance today. It’s called sortition now. There’s a lengthy Wikipedia article on it. You can also look up Brett Hennig on YouTube if you’d rather watch and listen.
Do yourself (and the country) a favour and look into it.
I wonder how Newfoundland would have turned out if the Americans had taken over? I'd be willing to guess it wouldn't be any worse than how Canada has run things.
Good analysis. I am a Newfoundlander, and it is important to not forget this moment in our history--even though I, like you, am dreading our upcoming Federal elections.
The current malaise is due to a lack of democracy, not too much of it. We're watching the end of what Kevin Carmichael calls "the end of the Gen-X economic consensus", and what others call neoliberalism.
The idea that "Mr Market" manages the economy under the watchful eye of expert central bankers and economists necessarily means that democratic politics doesn't have anything to say about political economy. Canada's laws promote monopolization, thereby empowering executives to set the terms and conditions of commerce. There's nothing for politics to do but cut taxes. Don't like high prices? Too bad, mister. That's just The Market at work. Don't like the interest rates? Too bad, central bank independence is important because.... well, it's important, isn't it?
The dissonance is on full display with the federal Liberals. They want to do good things, but they don't believe politics should interfere with markets. So they do weird 4D chess moves with half baked subsidies and tax nudges. Can't spend money on things because some naive economists with broken models don't like deficits. Complain about how voters don't understand how COMPLICATED the world is.
So politics becomes a game of empty culture war issues. Poilievre railing against the WEF while supporting their economic ideas. Trudeau going to the mat on a carbon tax that doesn't do anything. Singh complaining about notions of corrupt developers but is unable to articulate an alternative vision. The Green Party falling apart over nonsense that has nothing to do with environmentalism.
We need to dump the Gen X economic consensus, and put democratic politics back in control. All the populist movements worldwide talk about "taking back control". That's the key to a healthy democracy. We are a self-governing people who have tied our own hands with rules and ideas created by nerds who have contempt for democracy. It's time to embrace populism. Make democracy great again. Serve the people.
We saw how Trump's election made the Democrats govern better. Joe Biden has accomplished more progressive policy in two years than Obama did in eight. Poilievre's rise in the polls has actually made the Liberals govern better. Populism works.
I miss the days when the NDP represented the progressive left with out of control spending on labor rights, ecology and throttling business; the LPC had a modicum of fiscal responsibility but generally centrists views stealing planks from the left and right when it was politically advantageous; and the CPC wanted smaller government, stronger military, and promoted family values and law and order. Now the LPC is left of the NDP and the CPC represents the working class and the NDP is just a lap dog to the LPC. WTF?
Thanks for an excellent piece!
Democracy depends on an educated and engaged populace - which is why there's a push to stifle public education and amplify media brainwashing.
This piece got me thinking Churchill's comment about democracy. I've never come across a reason to disagree with it.
It turns out it wasn't original. Here's an excerpt from his speech to British Parliament in 1947:
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time; but there is the broad feeling in our country that the people should rule, continuously rule, and that public opinion, expressed by all constitutional means, should shape, guide, and control the actions of Ministers who are their servants and not their masters."
" where I was once excited about election campaigns, lately they mostly fill me with dread." I blame that entirely on the quality of leadership we have currently at all political levels, and could not agree with it more. Politics has gone from "Front Page Challenge" to the "Hollywood Squares".
Take a look at any country in the worlds that isn't a democracy and ask yourself if you'd want to live there permanently. Then, do the most basic thing in participation and hold your nose and vote. But vote...while you still can.
I always think that if I take a rest from democracy, the bad guys win.
I don't know who the bad guys are, but they do...
And on an side note, the only one I have not read is the Letto book. My father moved from Newfoundland to Canada in 1948, so I have had some interest in it.
This is a fine piece of writing, and it is done in a wonderfully readable style; moreover, it is a reminder that history may, indeed, have some lessons and can provide some perspective.
I only hope that historical study in our schools includes this kind of regional knowledge – which includes the challenges, the hopes, and yes the travails, that contributed to welding the country together, and that did not all occur in the Toronto-Montreal (“Laurentian”) axis.
Many thanks for the abridged history lesson, I knew nothing about the 'Commission of Government' era. And thanks for the book links - to that I have to add one of my favorite books, The Danger Tree by David McFarlane. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/944036, a family history that rolls up a good bit of the island history as it goes. It's fabulous, I've bought many of them over the years!
There is, of course, a difference between giving political squabbling a rest and giving democracy a rest. Britain did not cease to be a democracy during WW2, despite the fact that membership in Churchill's coalition cabinet owed nothing to party affiliation and everything to competence. In a time of national emergency, any man who didn't get things moving in his department could expect to be quickly replaced by someone more able, an assessment that made not the least appeal to political considerations.
As for the envy of Mussolini that's presumably intended to shock us, in 1933 this would clearly have been inspired by his success in getting trains to run on time--in short, by his economic and administrative competence--not by any particular admiration for what we subsequently came to know of fascism.
Otherwise, a very interesting piece.
Thank you. I was unaware of this history., but it tracks.
The 1933 Amulree Report would seem to suggest several parallels with our situation today.
1. Out of touch wealthy elites running a 'representative' government that largely ruled over an largely illiterate, unsophisticated working class, and kept them in their place with a token public dole.
2. Economic strife, massive government debt, civil unrest, and open pining from supposed representatives of the people for an end to democracy, and a strongman (like Mussolini) to rule over them under a fascistic model.
3. The concentration of power to a small group of unelected wealthy men, coupled with the movement toward the abolishment of representative government.
4. The move toward anarchy only stemmed by a world war, and an empire who swooped in to consolidate the wayward colony to join the nearby larger colony (Canada) before another empire (USA) scooped it up for its resource and strategic wealth.
Today, we see elements of #1, #2, and #3 already occuring in Canada.
Power is consolidated in the Canadian PMO with a small group of unelected elites, and the Cabinet Ministers, MPs, Senators, and the Judiciary are de facto trained seals at best, and complete nullities otherwise. Youth, academia, and union activists pine for fascism, even when they don't understand what it means, accusing current opposition MP's of being fascists for criticizing our current 'Dear Leader'and his pack of trained seal MPs and 'independent' senators. A pandemic even gave the Dear Leader and his unelected elites in the PMO the chance to test drive fascism.
What remains is how #4 plays out. The world is indeed, again, alas, at the precipice of world war, though most of the Canadian population (and its 'leadership') are either unaware of it, or believe it will not affect us because 'the Americans will protect us'. Perhaps the USA will be the 'saviour empire' who step in to clean up our mess. Perhaps. There are other empires elsewhere in the world that have been operating in Canada with essential impunity. Those empires might have other designs on our strategic and resource wealth. What's crazy is that many Canadians would apparently be happiest if anyone but the Americans gradually, then suddenly, took over the remnants of what we still, for the moment, refer to as Canada. What is it they say about a frog in a boiling pot of water?
Even if the Americans turn out to be the empire who steps in, they're not exactly an inspiring democracy any longer, though I'd argue they're the best of the current choices on offer.
Now to figure out how to get my adult sons and nearly adult daughter to read this piece and understand it. I'm not optimistic.
Don’t confuse elections with democracy. It’s elections that have lead to the party politics that is destroying democracy.
This is exactly the point behind a random lottery to appoint political representatives rather than electing them.
Undemocratic? “Rule by the people” is the very definition of democratic!
Randomly selecting representatives can provide a statistically valid result for population representation (the whole point behind elections). There’s no need for anybody to know anything about them beforehand (as if that helps much anyway with elections as we have them now.).
Of course competence still matters, but I disagree strongly that elections provide any increase in competence vs. random selection.
As P.J. O’Rourke liked to say “You could pick any bunch of names from the phone book and it wouldn’t be any worse than the politicians we elect …”
This isn’t a new or fantastical idea. Appointment by lot is what was used in ancient Athens. You know, the place that coined the word “democracy”.
The idea is also regaining acceptance today. It’s called sortition now. There’s a lengthy Wikipedia article on it. You can also look up Brett Hennig on YouTube if you’d rather watch and listen.
Do yourself (and the country) a favour and look into it.
I wonder how Newfoundland would have turned out if the Americans had taken over? I'd be willing to guess it wouldn't be any worse than how Canada has run things.
Enjoyed this. I especially recommend Linden MacIntyre’s “The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami.”
Wow, thank you! I didn't know this about the history of Newfoundland and it's very interesting. What a great, thought-provoking, piece.
Good analysis. I am a Newfoundlander, and it is important to not forget this moment in our history--even though I, like you, am dreading our upcoming Federal elections.
We don't want rid of Democracy. But what we have put up with lately (10 years or so) is'nt working
The current malaise is due to a lack of democracy, not too much of it. We're watching the end of what Kevin Carmichael calls "the end of the Gen-X economic consensus", and what others call neoliberalism.
The idea that "Mr Market" manages the economy under the watchful eye of expert central bankers and economists necessarily means that democratic politics doesn't have anything to say about political economy. Canada's laws promote monopolization, thereby empowering executives to set the terms and conditions of commerce. There's nothing for politics to do but cut taxes. Don't like high prices? Too bad, mister. That's just The Market at work. Don't like the interest rates? Too bad, central bank independence is important because.... well, it's important, isn't it?
The dissonance is on full display with the federal Liberals. They want to do good things, but they don't believe politics should interfere with markets. So they do weird 4D chess moves with half baked subsidies and tax nudges. Can't spend money on things because some naive economists with broken models don't like deficits. Complain about how voters don't understand how COMPLICATED the world is.
So politics becomes a game of empty culture war issues. Poilievre railing against the WEF while supporting their economic ideas. Trudeau going to the mat on a carbon tax that doesn't do anything. Singh complaining about notions of corrupt developers but is unable to articulate an alternative vision. The Green Party falling apart over nonsense that has nothing to do with environmentalism.
We need to dump the Gen X economic consensus, and put democratic politics back in control. All the populist movements worldwide talk about "taking back control". That's the key to a healthy democracy. We are a self-governing people who have tied our own hands with rules and ideas created by nerds who have contempt for democracy. It's time to embrace populism. Make democracy great again. Serve the people.
We saw how Trump's election made the Democrats govern better. Joe Biden has accomplished more progressive policy in two years than Obama did in eight. Poilievre's rise in the polls has actually made the Liberals govern better. Populism works.