Seeing and Changing: Canada's Next Step

WE MIGHT BE WITNESSING A DIFFERENT COUNTRY in the making, though we can’t be sure for some time yet. Nevertheless, something seems to have altered. It’s true that Justin Trudeau won a convincing election victory and enjoyed a terrific day for being sworn into office. But the yearning for change might be forming beneath these more public events.For the first time in a decade the country’s premiers have been included en mass in some of our most serious challenges. Our new Prime Minister sent out that signal immediately by inviting the premiers and territorial leaders to accompany him to the global climate change conference in Paris. Provinces are being consulted again on everything from refugee settlement to the prioritization of indigenous affairs. Dig deeper and there’s more. The welcoming back to the public sector on a partnership in governing infused new life throughout the civil service. Scientists are being told to harmonize their databases, their research, and their collaborations because evidence-based policy is again rising to the top of policymaking.Clues to that transformation have been emerging for some time, for those wishing to spot them. Beginning in 2013, the progressives across the country began to see movement. British Columbia went Liberal. Then Alberta elected an NDP government. Montreal and Calgary chose progressive mayors. In 2014, Ontario and Quebec both voted Liberal. Then Mississauga, London, and Toronto added progressives to those numbers. The greatest spectacle of them all took place with Trudeau’s victory a few weeks ago. In the words of the Post Media’s Jim Warren:

“The stars are finally aligned and have created an opportunity for real change. We are living in political times never experienced before. All of Canada’s major political decision makers are aligned in political ideology.”

Now what? Almost a decade of austerity and outsized right-wing leadership inevitably produced a longing among Canadians for more hopeful days and sunnier dispositions. It was inevitable. Conservatives can cry sour grapes, but they did have a decade of rule in some jurisdictions and should have known that politics inevitably swings the other way. But the real question should be: is it enough?The answer is no. Change has come become citizens have pressed for it and astute politicians have run on progressive platforms as a result. The cumulative intervention of citizens on politics in the last few years is what has changed the political dynamic, not the other way around. We must always remember that elections don’t change us; they reveal us. We now know that Canada is clamoring for a change in perspective, but it will never come if we merely expect the political order to provide it.Have a look at this cartoon – it says it all. For those of the progressive bent, getting political change was the easy part. Getting ourselves, as citizens, ready to lead it is something that has rarely happened in Canada. We push our leaders for a new day and expect them to deliver while we go back to our private pursuits. That’s no way for democracy to proceed into the pivotal decades ahead. Politicians without citizens is like a country without its heart.  We changed our political circumstances, but for it to last we must change ourselves.Perhaps Rumi put it best: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I’m changing myself.” It’s time for Canada to mature from political adolescence, where others direct our lives, to maturity, where we work in concert with our political representatives to create the world we want. The political order has caught the wave, but without us it won’t be able to ride it to completion. "The strong say nothing until they see," noted poet Robert Frost.  We've seen enough to know that our time has come.