How to Fix Canada's Political Parties: The Liberals

The Liberals should talk to Canadians about the dangers of petty, partisan politics.

Democracy, though the most superior form of governance known to human society, has its own tragic flaw. Government by consent of the people, for the people, can transform into government by manipulation of the consent of less than half of the people, primarily for the benefit of its own partisans while feigning concern for the rest of the populace.

Democracy can become open terrain for the unscrupulous and the manipulators. The most skilled in these unsavory talents will find their way into leadership roles of political parties. Their ultimate goal is to split the population into many opposing camps in the hope that the smaller groups of a divided country will amount to a sufficient number to put them into government. The result is a government that rests on a fractured and poisoned legislature incapable of governing for all the people. This could well be the modus operandi of Canada’s present governing party.

The Liberal party should bury these politics of division that divide region from region, and citizens from other citizens, instilling fear of certain groups and dividing Canadians over the role of the executive vs. the supremacy of Parliament, over the benefits of crime prevention vs. harsher criminal punishments, and over a mythical zero-sum contest between the economy and the environment.

How do the Liberals start to bury the legacy the Harper government has sown in this country? They must engage in a dialogue with Canadians about the dangers of petty, partisan, and cynical politics. Such politics will not prepare Canadians to deal with challenges such as the prevention of and adaptation to catastrophic climate change, resurrecting an economy in the aftermath of a global financial and economic collapse, and the demographic, pension, and health care resource time bombs we face with an aging population, not to mention the security threats from terrorists, organized crime, and human trafficking. In the face of these challenges, a form of politics that depends on attack ads and vicious partisanship will only result in declining voter turnout, especially among the country’s youth.

To these ends, even before an election is held, the Liberals must send their MPs and the best and brightest of their other representatives to consult with Canadians on how to bring citizens together in the big tent of progressive politics. The majority of voting Canadians are neither on the radical right nor the radical left of the political spectrum. Most position themselves somewhere in the centre, with small swings to the right or left. However, what is clearly discernible from voting results from well over the last decade is that most Canadians like to think of themselves as progressive in their political and social perspectives.

There is a great opportunity for the Liberal party to welcome those Canadians with Red Tory progressive politics into the big tent for a big country, just as there is an opportunity to welcome those who have voted for the NDP and the Green party. The uniting principle is the word “progressive.” To be progressive is to reject the minimalist government philosophies of the radical right, which promote only change that enhances the fittest and dooms those who cannot flourish without the help of society’s resources. The imperative of progressive governments is to allow not only the most disadvantaged but also the majority of citizens in the middle class to progress to the fullest extent of their god-given talents.

The urgent reconciliation of the demands of a progressive and just society with the reality of societal and economic pressures is imperative not only for the Liberal party and the individual good of Canadians, but also for the social stability and economic prosperity of the country.