The Martlet

Canadians need to learn to work together again.

We’ve got great precedent, from curling and hockey teams that dominate international competitors to armed forces that integrate so well with international counterparts when deployed to crises in Haiti and elsewhere.

But at home, it’s clear we just aren’t getting along, and it’s leading to paralysis.

Millions of Canadians have turned their backs on the project of building a more just society. It’s because we can’t stand to see our national teams fall in on themselves and ultimately fall apart. The national teams are our political parties, and without cohesiveness and integrity, they aren’t leading Canadians.

It comes down to their inability to cooperate with Canadians and each other.

Politics as blood sport in a media frenzy-fed consumer society has corrupted the vital role politicians and parties play in Canada. Cynical strategists make the world of politics a toxic place only they have the stomach to inhabit by turning us on each other. These political jackals hijack the process by gnawing at Canadian democratic traditions like openness, cooperation and compromise. That’s why politicians think it’s okay to yell at each other, distort the positions of others and denigrate other’s ideas, even if they privately agree.

We allow this sham spectacle to tune us out. Politics has become a dirty word — one we’re steering clear of more often in polite conversation. Out of an overabundance of respect for difference, we’re allowing our friends and family the luxury of indifference. But the apathy only encourages the bad behaviour. It’s a vicious cycle.

All Canadians have a vested interest in seeing this narrow brand of politics fail. We have to reach out and build bridges with our neighbours, regardless of political stripe. We can and must build a coalition of those truly willing to stand up for Canadian democracy.

Building such a coalition almost happened in late 2008. Opposition to Machiavellian government tactics united opposition in a way that had them talking about sharing, compromise and honest communication. With a heavy, malicious hand, the government spun the idea as dangerous and undemocratic. A compliant media ate it up and sold out Canadians, who only bought it because we don’t trust politicians to mean it when they say they want to put their divisions aside and work together for the common good.

Spineless politicians are only as good as the individualistic people that elect them and power their parties.

Taking their cues from their own egos and sycophantic advisers, politicians think they can win alone, merely using and abusing others on the path to power. Putting an end to this mentality means putting an end to the “ideals” of natural governing parties and majority government.

A shift from the consumerist culture of ME to the citizenship-based culture of WE will blunt selfish individualism as we are forced to form a collective response to crises of poverty, extremism and ecological disaster.

To solve humanity’s most important tests, we have to take the power back. We must reject the impulses that isolate us from opponents, instead finding ideals that we hold in common. We have to take over the party machinery in each electoral district and openly begin to collaborate with those of other parties on community projects, forums and real solutions.

Opening up the political process to local debate that incorporates social media, via town hall meetings, teach-ins and community organizing will draw our neighbours back into a process where things get done, respectfully. Parties won’t be able to afford to nominate candidates who won’t stand up to their leaders when it comes to cooperating with their allies across party lines.

It’s called coalition building through cooperation, and it begins with you there, in the grassroots.