A new poll reveals that more Canadians than ever agree with the phrase “Canada is broken.” The situation is dire. People are losing faith. We need to turn things around. But how?
A Leger poll commissioned by Postmedia shows that 70 percent agree with the statement that “everything is broken in the country right now.” When broken down by political support, the phrase is backed by 85 percent of Conservatives, 66 percent of NDPers, and 43 percent of Liberals.
While the Liberal response is the lowest, it’s also the most interesting because it tells us that almost half of Liberal voters likely don’t have faith in the government they voted into power.
The reasons people feel this way, according to Leger, is the growing sense that “everything is broken” and that “my standard of living is declining” and the health-care system is in shambles.
So what do we do? One way to go in a different direction is to elect a new government. That already seems to be in the works. The pollsters say there is a great stickiness behind Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s fall from favour. It’s all but a done deal that the next time there’s an election, Trudeau is out and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is in. What’s left to work out are the details over exactly when and how it will happen.
But that’s really just the beginning of the turnaround. I had a recent conversation with a conservative policy expert about how he’s now shifted his thinking away from how to win power towards what to do once the Conservatives get into power to bring about positive change.
Governing is hard. And a term can move fast. You want to make sure you’re prepared to hit the ground running on day one.
If Canada is broken—and the verdict seems to be that it is—then we’re going to need an all-hands-on-deck response to fixing it.
But this isn’t just going to take place at the government level. It needs to happen everywhere.
The other day I had the opportunity to participate in a Rotary Club event and it reminded me of the power and importance of civil society and community groups. They can be amazing forces for good in their neighbourhoods.
The event I attended was full of successful business members and community leaders who were focused on how they can support the families in need in their area. It’s truly impressive and commendable stuff. We need more people to join these sorts of groups.
There’s an old saying that goes “big government makes for small citizens.” What this means, in short, is that the more functions the government takes on, the less likely people are to feel that it’s their responsibility to step forward and care for their community.
Instead of thinking that a problem could be solved by a group of citizens banding together, people are encouraged to depend on the government to solve all of their problems. Even people who have strong self-determination find themselves falling into this trap.
It’s what we’ve been encouraged to believe. But faceless bureaucracies end up elbowing community spirit out of the way.
In the 1990s, American political science professor Robert Putnam came up with the “bowling alone” thesis. He was concerned by the erosion of participation in community groups, whether they be volunteer groups or sports clubs. The idea being that communities are strengthened when people join clubs and sports leagues but unfortunately people were becoming more atomized, hence the image of a man bowling alone. The advent of social media, iPhones, and online streaming only gave people more opportunities to stay indoors and isolated.
Let’s hope we can turn that phenomenon around. While I’m unaware of any firm statistics on recent changes to community and political involvement, I’ve heard a lot of people say that the current challenges with our country have compelled them to no longer sit on the sidelines. They now want to get more involved in directly improving society. This is great. The more the better.
Canada may be broken, but there should be hope that together we can fix it.
