Citizenship - "True Politics"

Like it or not, so much of what we do can be called “politics.” Shawn is a friend of mine in London who tweets relentlessly on the unwillingness of various levels of government to solve common problems. He networks with others, puts forward ideas and concepts, and uses his skills in the digital world to draw people into a larger discussion. Over a drink a couple of months ago he told my wife and I that he “wasn’t into politics all that much.” Nevertheless he practices it faithfully everyday.It’s a curious thing that people don’t think that working with others to solve common problems is politics, yet that’s exactly what it is. We have relegated politics and politicians to another dimension, but true politics is bigger than all of that. These posts have been about the politics of public problem-solving and community development, not in Ottawa, a provincial capital, or even city hall. Our thoughts on citizenship will end in a couple of weeks, but I hope that by now we can face the challenge of moving from first impressions to more shared and reflective judgments about the interests of the public. And I trust we comprehend that by the “public” we’re not talking about a mass of individuals but a deliberative body of citizens willing to put in the work of protecting and enhancing the public domain.But even to begin to solve our formidable problems, not to mention the personal loneliness and isolation citizens often experience, requires that we greatly improve our capacity to connect with one another and evidence the maturity required to work together to solve common problems.A sense of civic duty prompts some of us to enter the political realm to make a difference – I know, I was one of them. But democracy is more than that, something greater than just representatives talking to each other. An interest in better politics shouldn’t be confused with interest in good government. This difference is essential to our understanding of our own capacities and what we have to offer.Politics is going on all the time in this country, just not in the traditional sense. I think we all know this but have been so preoccupied with the drama of political assemblies in our respective capitals. To make our task more difficult, the media itself has displayed little interest in the impressive efforts of average citizens to improve their communities or even taken the best of Canada to the overwhelmingly tragic places like East Africa. The theatre of the absurd often evident in Ottawa has proved far more enticing to media than someone like Shawn, who is in the process of making his community a better place, albeit quietly. That’s just the way it is and we know it, so we might as well get around to recreating democracy on our own terms as citizens. The radicals, the partisans, the pursuers of power for power’s sake have left little space for the public. The sense of being pushed out of the political process cuts to the core of how Canadians view politics.Today’s conventional wisdom argues that the average Canadian has given up on the political process and moved further into isolation. There is some truth in this, but my experience with others has shown me that a deep sense of civic and national duty lies behind all the complaints and cynical comments Canadians make. The most basic form of politics is the daily conversation about the choices we have to make as citizens in order to improve our country or our city. This form of politics is happening every minute across this country and represents a kind of hope that dedicated Canadians can recapture the political agenda from the ideologues and make it matter at the grassroots, where it really counts. We watch the erosion of the official political process and it worries us … a lot. We’re not even sure if reviving the party system or increasing voter turnout will effectively address the source of the erosion.Lobbyists are never hired to help present balanced views; they forever seek to tilt the system in their direction. So much of this goes on at so many levels that it turns out that the public interest is the only one not being represented. Citizens try but are often outflanked. Public officials never see citizens talking and deliberating with one another; they merely see citizens talking with other public officials. Because of this, their confidence in what the public is capable of is hindered.The most important office in all of Canada is the office of the private citizen. It is we who give politicians their legitimacy and not the other way around. With confidence in official politics at low ebb, we have perhaps a better chance to spread out wings as citizens than ever before. But we must unite for that to occur.  Lester Pearson put it so much better than I ever could: “It is up to the citizen whether we live together in confidence and cohesion; with more faith and pride in ourselves and less self-doubt and hesitation; strong in the conviction that the destiny of Canada is to unite, not divide; sharing in cooperation, not in separation or in conflict; respecting our past and welcoming our future.”