Photo Credit: Canadian Fermentation

As I’ve arrived home from my Christmas holiday, I like many other Canadians, am feeling the wave of depression at the prospect of going back to work. It is that time, and it is a painful time. Unfortunately, I have a full-time job like so many of you, I get paid every two weeks like so many of you, and like so many of you, I have to actually show up to work to receive my paycheque. But I can dream, and that dream is to work for the Canadian government. If I did, I wouldn’t be returning to work until March with the blessings of my boss and my paycheques still in hand. What a generous guy that Stephen Harper is when it comes to our tax dollars paying his MP’s salaries. Call me a slave driver, but I would expect my employees to actually earn their wage, particularly if the Canadian public is paying their salaries. I mean a four month holiday from Parliament seems a little excessive, doesn’t it?
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Some erroneously regard Populism and Democracy as virtually indistinguishable. Why shouldn’t they? Populism is the political philosophy of catering to the interests of the people, (although not necessarily in the interest of the people). Populism is not good in itself – it is, however, an excellent way of keeping the people pacified and a government in power. Democracy, on the other hand, is at least in theory; rule by the people and for the people. It is good in itself because it provides the means for the people to exercise their free will in deciding how and by whom they are being governed, for better or worse. As such, Populism is central to the functioning of democracy through its influence in drawing the people. Conversely, democracy is not necessary to the functioning of populism. Were it so, the spectacular reigns of Imperial Rome and gang would never have been.

It is important to have a solid understanding of the two and how they function together, particularly for politicians, or they may be stuck learning them on the fly. In the media age, it is not a good idea to be caught floundering. This is a lesson the current government of Canada is learning. Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected democratically, his popularity since then has been consistently floundering. Speculation regarding our reserved PM has ranged from frustration at his lack of warmth to claims that he may actually be a robot. In especial comparison with neighbouring, personable and wildly popular American president, Barrack Obama, Harper was looking mighty… stiff.
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We live in a world of labels; conservative, liberal, gay, straight, nature, nurture… It makes us feel more secure, leads us to believe that a person or perspective can be summed up so simply. The reality is that, upon the most basic examination, most people and their perspectives are a combination of multiple factors and life is too complex to boil down to a solitary verb. How many of us have had any success describing ourselves in one word?


I am a conservative often and a feminist always and examining the issue of the polygamy trial of the Mormon leaders in Bountiful through those paradigms brings up an interesting conundrum; what matters more, the protection of women or freedom from unnecessary laws? I think it is something most of us face more frequently than we care to acknowledge; the need to reconcile seemingly competing priorities. The figuring out of what’s more important, more worthy of activism, is the price and the prize of democracy.
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Democracy is about choice. It’s about the right to look at differing visions of the country and make a choice about which you think is best. Some people say the more political parties there are, the more varied the choice and, thus, the stronger the democracy. Is this true? When different political parties take similar stances, is that still a choice?

It has become painfully obvious that the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party no longer represent distinctive options to the Canadian electorate. Stephen Harper has proven time and again that he is willing to compromise his beliefs in search of his majority government (to see how far Harper has come, look up some old Reform Party platforms; the Conservatives are pushing for none of it). The Conservative Party is now far more centrist than it was intended to be, the most glaring proof being the acceptance of deficit economics. Meanwhile, Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals are suffering an identity crisis. Harper’s strategic move to the centre has taken a large piece of the electorate away from the Liberals. Stephane Dion’s response was to propose a radical environmental policy that was intended to win over all progressive voters. The left-of-centre vote never unified behind Dion (remaining split between the Liberals, NDP and the Greens) and drove more traditional Liberal supporters into the arms of the Conservatives. With that strategy deemed a failure, Ignatieff has been forced to subtly acknowledge that his version of the Liberal Party wouldn’t do things very differently than the Conservatives (see Ignatieff’s support of the budget). The Liberals are being squeezed out of the political picture, and since they can no longer offer anything distinctive in terms of policy, they are left hoping Canadians will think Ignatieff is the more capable leader.
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