The events of the past few years, primarily the Covid 19 response, but also, the disaster response in British Columbia and the events related to Ukraine have brought serious societal fissures and governance deficiencies into resolution. The propensity for every challenge that faces us being distorted by political discourse and then the extreme division it is causing has become alarming. There are many causal factors coming to play, the one that is most damaging is the fragmentation of our nation’s narrative, the cleaving of social perspective between “progressives” and “anti-capitalism” movements versus the “establishment”. This internal competition for hearts and minds is played upon by external players whose interests are served by exacerbating social division.
Canada is an exemplary country, we educate our people, we have a compassionate social perspective, and we enjoy a standard of living that puts us at the pinnacle of human existence – ever. The social strife that has been emerging is threatening both the egg and the goose, there are movements afoot that are keen to throw away the various systems and institutions that provided us with all we have. I observe governments, businesses, professionals, and members of the public conducting themselves in contempt of the foundational elements of our society, treating fundamentals like the rule of law, hard-won civil liberties as hurdles to get over rather than attending to both the spirit and the letter of the law. When foundational elements of our society, the very principles our country is founded on, are seen to be manipulated or ineffective a crack opens for further division fueled by “revolutionary” and competing narratives.
What is
missing is an overarching narrative, one that is held by us all. I have posted
Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on various social media platforms
and encountered people afraid to give it an open and hardy affirmation, yet
they will in confidence – I hope this concerns you all. In my youth attending
our public education system, there were many many instances when teachers would
contrast our free society with that of the Soviet Union. George Orwell’s book Animal
Farm was read aloud to me by my teacher in grade 6 and we talked about the evils
of unchecked and centralized state power. I would encounter a clear and
common narrative that our way of life, our governance modalities and institutions
supported by our market system was the best system there is. There are two
things Canadians need to know, that they are presently the most prosperous
people in human history and how that happened – unless priority is given to
ensuring that Canadians do know, our society will unravel and all we’ve built
here will implode under the weight of a people with maps of reality distorted by political
spin and the voices of dissidents foreign and domestic.
The first
step in the process then is agreeing on a narrative that serves to stabilize and
support our country and our values and secondly, propagandizing that narrative.
One symbolic gestor to start the process would be to have every member of parliament
stand at attention in front of the parliament buildings while the first 15
Sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms scrolled by on big screens with Old
Canada playing and the entire undertaking being streamed to every media channel
in the country. The process would close with the Governor-General giving a
short speech extending to Canadians permission to preserve and protect the
values expressed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms with vigour and pride. Our people and the enemies of freedom
need to see we stand together and for something.
Having
agreed on the theme of the overarching narrative, the government could actively
promote the narrative through various initiatives – more intensive Canadian
Studies in schools and actively market the narrative via various media forums.
Further, the subversion of western values is hardly contained in our borders –
it is far-reaching. We need a collective effort on the part of the CBC in concert
with like-minded entities like the BBC, ABC and others to tell the story of our
prosperity – a truth demonstrated by merely listing the most prosperous peoples
in the world – the G20 to start – who have gained their prosperity by the
combination of civil rights, a market economy and robust social supports.
Unless we fill
the void, the absent narrative, others will fill it with their own interests in
mind; the assent of authoritarianism will continue unabated. Shakespeare taught us that “the
pen is mightier than the sword”, however, unless the pen is used pervasively and
persuasively apathy will leave no other option than the sword. The world is standing
on a precipice, rarely has our way of life been more challenged – the “dark
clouds of authoritarianism” are looming – action is required now.
