As Mia Rabson writes in today’s Winnipeg Free Press, all three provincial elections completed this fall have been “marred with overwhelming levels of negative advertising and political attacks.” While negative campaigning is just one factor influencing voter turnout rates and levels of civic engagement in Canada, Samara guest blogger Anne Murray tells us about several initiatives that are making progress in their efforts to stem Canada’s tide of bad political behaviour.
In the last year, I, like many of you, was asked to vote in three separate elections: Toronto’s mayoral race in October 2010, the 2011 federal general election in May, and in last week's Ontario general election. Each election campaign has provided opportunities for improved civic engagement and public debate on the issues that matter to Canadians. Unfortunately, they also provided opportunities for negative campaigning, name-calling, and aggressive rhetoric. As someone who cares deeply about the political process and citizen engagement, I find this is a discouraging trend.
Fortunately, it isn’t all bad news. From academia and grassroots-level organizations to politicians themselves, a different approach is gaining momentum. Some are benchmarking the current state of civility in Canadian politics, while others are taking active steps toward improving the state of Canada’s political affairs.
Civility in the House
McMaster University researchers Dr. Alexandre Sévigny and Dr. Philip Savage developed the Question Period Monitoring and Analysis Project (QPMAP) to measure the civility of Members of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons during Question Period. The QPMAP enabled Dr. Sévigny and Dr. Savage to quantify the behaviour of MPs during Question Period in order to assess whether their behaviour and civility in the Commons were as bad as the media often portrayed them to be.
The researchers developed a schema to codify MPs’ behaviour and style of communication and designed what they call a “civility index.” Using the QPMAP, they found that “contrary to moments of fist pounding and yelling, more than 75 per cent of the time an MP will receive applause in response to their comments, whereas they are booed only 6 per cent of the time...”
Raising the question of gender and its influence over political behaviour, Dr. Sévigny and Dr. Savage’s research identified Rona Ambrose, a Conservative MP for Edmonton Spruce Grove, as the most civil MP in the House of Commons. With a civility index of 68, Ambrose’s scored a full 14 points above MPs’ average rating of 54.
A political pledge
One organization pushing for a change in the culture of Canadian politics is Civil Election. In the lead up to the 2011 general election, Christopher Holcroft launched Civil Election as a non-partisan organization campaign aimed at encouraging political candidates to sign the “Civil Election Campaign Pledge 2011.” His pledge was simple, and asked candidates to agree to three things:
• To make themselves available for public debates and all-candidate meetings
• To not engage in personal attacks on their political opponents
• To advocate for a respectful and substantive exchange of ideas
More than a hundred candidates signed the pledge, with significant representation from across the country and across party lines. In a recent conversation, Holcroft expressed concern over politicians’ propensity for divisive political rhetoric and declining voter turnout and civic disengagement. Civil Election thus began as Holcroft’s response to the situation. While he believes that politicians should be able to hold “differing views and good debates,” he maintains that they should do so in a respectful way.
Considering the media attention that negative campaigning receives, it is encouraging to see the efforts of both academics and non-partisan organizations begin to effect change. At the same time, the commitment by some politicians to keep their bad behaviour in check marks a step in the right direction.
It is reported that, at the NDP’s first caucus meeting as the Official Opposition, buttons with the words "Opto Civilitas" meaning “Wish for Civility,” were handed out to NDP caucus members. Media stunt or a sign of the changing times, the message was at least a positive one.
The trend towards greater civility in politics is also revealing itself on the provincial level. For example, Liberal candidate Cortney Pasternak of Toronto’s west-end Parkdale-High Park riding drew up a code of conduct describing how she would run her campaign for the recent general election in Ontario. Published on her campaign website, the code made various pledges to keep the campaign focused on the issues, namely to have "respect for constituents, respect for candidates, and respect for the campaign” itself. Her fellow Parkdale-High Park running mates and their campaign volunteers were invited to abide by the same rules.
Whether based on an academic measure of MPs’ civility, an organization’s effort to get politicians to “play nice,” or leaders’ own commitment to improve their behaviour, any trend toward a more civil political environment must stay focused on the issues that matter most to Canadians
Sources: The report for the Question Period Monitoring Analysis Project can be found here
Visit www.civilelection.ca for more information about the Civil Election project
And www.votepasternak.ca for Cortney Pasternak’s Election Campaign Code of Conduct
Anne M. Murray is a recent graduate from Ryerson University's Master of Professional Communications program, where she focused on the interaction between the media and communicating about public policy. A political affairs and public policy junkie, Anne practices public affairs communications in Toronto, ON.