Our initial report, The Accidental Citizen?, contained both good and bad news for our democracy. The good news is that Canadian politics are more open and diverse than we often assume.
The bad news is that the political nomination process can be very confusing to the public and is fraught with difficulties and inconsistencies, making widespread citizen participation difficult. Furthermore, many MPs claimed they didn’t consider running for federal politics before they were asked—a reluctance that may suggest a more broadly—held belief that politics and public service is something for which one cannot admit ambition, even after the fact.
This professed reluctance was most troubling given the importance of a Parliamentarian’s job. MPs are responsible for framing and leading many of our public debates, deciding on the policies and laws that will shape our country, and serving as the democratic conduits to our citizenry. This is an important job.
With our first report, we sought to initiate a discussion about the functioning of our democracy, its strengths and weaknesses, and how to improve citizen engagement. We feel honoured that we’ve been asked to share the findings of The Accidental Citizen? with national and local media, and that we’ve been invited to speak to groups of teachers, principals, public servants, university students and other engaged citizens from British Columbia to Atlantic Canada.
This report, unfortunately, contains more bad news than good regarding the current state of Canadian democracy, as you will soon see. We encourage readers to actively engage with this report, to carefully consider its implications and share their thoughts and opinions with others. We hope you will help us in our mission to make our democratic institutions more open to the Canadian citizenry by sharing this report with your friends and colleagues, talking with them about its implications, or by contacting us if you’re interested in participating in our work.