Promoting Politics: Quentin Durgens, MP
Photo Credit: CBC

This article was sparked by an earlier posting from Jason Darby and deals with the elephant in the room or I guess more precisely the digital elephant in the blog. How do we encourage more political participation and an informed vote among Canadians?

There is no doubt that political apathy and political cynicism has increased significantly around the world over the past four decades. The reasons for this are numerous. People have significantly less free time these days. Moreover, there is now a lot of what has been referred to as “ Data Smog”. Whether one is a politician, a businessperson or an entertainer, you have a lot more competition these days and you have to compete for attention in a glut of information in the news media and internet.

Another major reason is probably the Nixon Watergate Scandal of the mid-1970s. While the general decline of respect for professionals and leaders was probably just beginning during this period, this scandal did not help matters and probably precipitated or even caused the dislike of politicians and politics that we now see in our culture. Most people today simply do not like or trust politicians and thus are not interested in politics. The consequences of this sentiment are serious. Many talented people do not seek political office and avoid other forms of political participation. Political parties are starved of strong candidates and good political workers. The quality of public policy declines.

There are ways to fight this problem. I have focused on posting good news stories about politics and posting information about the positive and interesting aspects of government. I appear to have had limited success. If other journalists and bloggers did the same, it would help the situation. But this alone would not resolve the problem.

We need to create a more positive attitude toward politics, and in order to do this, we need to paint a larger flattering picture on a larger canvas. Chretien tried to establish a public museum devoted to politics but eventually he failed in this endeavor. If more people were involved and if it focused on all aspects of public service not just politicians, the idea might succeed in a second attempt.

We need more well written quality movies, documentaries, and television shows dealing with politics. The success of the television series “The West Wing” and the critical praise of the documentary “Virtual JFK” suggest that well produced film can help change attitudes. In fact, Canadians have a history of producing high quality films about politics. Quentin Durgens, MP was a fine television series produced during the 1960s, depicting politics from a distinctive Canadian perspective and starring a young Gordon Pinsent. Likewise, the Canadian documentary “Champions” was an award winning film that examined the showdown between two political adversaries, Pierre Trudeau and Rene Levesque. Fellow bloggers, let’s expand our writing repertoire to include screenplays!

We also need to reach teenagers and children. Presenting information and lessons about politics in a way that they can understand and that they will find interesting will go a long way to curbing future political cynicism.

We also need to find ways (and not just in a monetary sense) to encourage the recruitment of strong candidates and excellent political workers. If this is done, it will likely result in better government and hence fewer excuses for political cynicism. This is not a popular position, but better pay and benefits would indeed be helpful in attracting quality candidates. Politicians make a good income, but it is not commensurate with their responsibilities and workload. Unfortunately, the optics of monetary augmentation combined with cynicism about politicians make the idea of significant direct salary increases impractical, at least in the short term.

We then must come up with other ways to attract good candidates. Moreover, we should try to attract a more diverse group of strong candidates that is more representative of the Canadian population. For example, family friendly policies (e.g. subsidized daycare/nannies and subsidized travel for spouses and children, and evenings or weekends free from political work) will not only help to strengthen the families of politicians, but may attract more female candidates. The Canadian Sikh community does not need much encouragement to become politically active, since Sikhs have a long tradition of political participation. But maintaining ties with that community and others may help individuals and other ethnic groups become more political. Carolyn Parrish, for example, is a politician of European ancestry who has courted much controversy and criticism in the past for her undiplomatic behaviour. However, she is probably secure in her current political position because of her close ties to the Sikh community. Political workshops, not unlike the ones offered by Toronto Catholic Trustee Rob Davis, that provide an introduction to politics for potential candidates will also be helpful and can be tailored for specific ethnic groups.

The task will be arduous. The journey will be long. But promoting political participation and an informed vote is not a job from which we should shrink. Because politicians and politics do not attract much interest today does not mean it will always be that way. In the past, actors and artists were often viewed less highly than prostitutes, yet today many practitioners of those crafts are held in very high esteem and are worshiped by millions around the world.

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Tags: canadian politics, political participation, [[the west wing]]

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Activism, Our Country. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.