Finding Life Elsewhere
No one can ever claim that Parliament is short of ideas. It’s just short of viable mechanisms for getting those ideas beyond the concept stage. This, of course, doesn’t make any sense at all and stands counter-intuitive to what the People’s House is supposed to be in the first place. Viable initiatives are meant to stream from across the country, into the parliamentary precinct, undergo a lengthy research process, and then proceed out back into the country in a more refined fashion, backed by resources and legislation. All that breaks down when parliamentarians forget that was to be their main purpose in getting elected.But just because that system is deeply dysfunctional right now doesn’t mean great ideas and important dialogue have nowhere to go. Take ChangeCamp London as a good example. It’s a free, all day event at Museum London this weekend that seeks to bring together citizens and their respective governments, providing them tools for to how to work more collaboratively. Essentially, it’s designed to introduce new tools of communication to deal with the real-world challenges faced by communities across the country.All this is really about social innovation – something the House of Commons appears not to have discovered yet. And it’s about building into our communities a new dimension of creative culture that takes regular challenges but find new approaches of dialogue, non-partisanship and helpful tools to usher citizens into a new age of advocacy and involvement.What’s it all for? Why do it? Because the public space itself in the House of Commons and elsewhere is often poisoned by the sheer politics of it all. Canadians don’t seem to mind politics, just not the kind they’re getting federally right now. Yet in our local communities lies a wealth of potential for civic engagement, concrete action, and, yes, effective politics.These ChangeCamps have been held in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton and Windsor. Soon you’ll be able to take part in others in Vancouver, Sault Ste. Marie, East Toronto, Montreal and Barrie. But for this weekend it’s in my community, and it couldn’t come soon enoughAn odd reversal is going on. The flow of ideas and qualified minds to the nation’s capital is now moving the other way. Or maybe it just isn’t moving at all - dynamic citizens are staying put in their own communities. What was once an appealing option of taking civic leadership to Ottawa doesn’t appear to be such a great idea these days – especially for women, who prefer democratic love to destructive political war.Politics isn’t sick in this country; it’s just diseased in Ottawa at the moment. Find out about ChangeCamps by visiting the website at www.london.changecamp.ca or catch them on Facebook – www.facebook.com/ChangeCampLondon.I’ll be there this weekend, not out of civic duty but of civic need. I need to get around people who actually believe that politics isn’t a cudgel for bashing but a venue for community dynamic.