Toward a "Muscular" Liberalism

Much of what transpires everyday in Parliament is meaningful and sometimes productive, but such things often take place outside of the public eye. What most Canadians read or see in the media is primarily centered in conflict, in part because modern media, by its own admission, thrives on such tension and either reports it or at times helps to create it. Political parties feed such a beast by staying in a kind of permanent attack mode. And so the running narrative about this present Parliament concentrates on scandals, question period and rampant partisanship.I am a Liberal, and a proud one, but at times I get the sense that true Liberalism is being clouded by the disturbing signs of 24/7 sabre-rattling. The time has come for a different kind of qualitative liberalism - something that is dedicated to the lives people actually live. Many Liberal MPs here actually behave as though this kind of politics is what really matter, and they are right. Trouble is, their reasonings and successes rarely get noticed by the non-stop politics of this place right now.The problems such people wrestle with have to do with education, medical care, climate change, housing, elder care, infrastructure, Canada's image in the world, child poverty - in other words, those things that make a true difference in the lives of the average person.This is qualitative liberalism and it doesn't come neatly wrapped in a box or from some kind of partisan political manual. It is rather a struggle between what we want to be as a citizenry and how our elected representatives can help us get there. It isn't about getting your vote but calling out your values; not about manipulating you with partisan imagery but moving you with creative imagination; not about selling you a message but about sharing joint meaning.Right now, this present Parliament faces a strange irony: Canada is richer than ever before but is devoting a decreasing share of its wealth to the common welfare. This latest Conservative budget only continues that downward trend. The country presently requires a liberalism that raises the question of why such affluence has led to the impoverishment of the Canadian spirit. True liberalism is "muscular" liberalism, the kind the rolls up its sleeves and tackles the deepest abiding problems of our present age. It's time to get past the "noise" and listen to the deeper cries for a true Canadian national vision.