What's Happened to Politics? by Bob Rae

Author:Bob Rae
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

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In the parliamentary debates of the future, is it possible to imagine that basic issues about our economy, our environment, and our social programs will be addressed at all? It should be, but it will only happen if voters, the press, the academic commentators, and responsible media refuse to accept pop as a permanent diet. Canada is less innovative than it needs to be, less green, less equal, and shows fewer sightings of public imagination and solidarity than would be healthy for all of us. We are not alone in this, but the fact that the weakness of our democratic pulse is shared by other countries should hardly be a source of consolation, let alone pride.

It will increasingly be left to a serious dialogue between and among Canadians young and old, well off and insecure, to wrestle with these questions we confront as a country. While the three ps of parliamentary politics—pandering, personal attack, and partisanship—dominate Question Period, we shall have to find a way to make sure the conversation happens and the right decisions are made. No longer can we leave these decisions in the hands of Parliament. The tendency of politicians to deflect important policy considerations to a later date has become an epidemic. Regardless of their political affiliation, all Canadians—especially young ones—should be asking themselves, if policies are being drafted without their input and without their needs in mind, what burden will they be left to carry when the policymakers are gone?

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