Bring back political joy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/08/2023 (1125 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While reflecting on the state of politics in Canada and Manitoba I recalled a critical instance in my teaching career. While lamenting that education was a mess, my professor of the day stopped me with, “if there’s no joy in what you’re doing you’re not doing it right — education is a joy in itself.” It dawned on me that the same is true for politics. If politics is not joyful, is it being done wrong?

Today’s political scene seems to be definitely lacking joy. Our prime minister can’t be happy that a poll calls him the worst in history. Our leader of the Conservative Opposition, without explanation, repeatedly calls Canada a “broken country,” implying the prime minister broke it. Political newcomers, like the Peoples Party of Canada and the Keystone Party of Manitoba ply their platforms of conspiracies and exclusion to eager followers emboldened by their false claims and other deceits. There’s an unfathomable mean-spiritedness in the political air exemplified by character attack ads in Manitoba.

Recently, the media noted that the electorate is angry and disillusioned. What we seem to have in common is a general malaise, a populist entitlement to existential unhappiness, and a feeling that it is up to politicians to make us happy, almost daring them to do so.

Ironically, it’s not the people who have every reason to be unhappy — the poor, homeless, unemployed, underrepresented, addicted — and discriminated against for a variety of reasons. Instead, it’s often people with the means to take costly vacations, drive luxury cars, attend exorbitant professional sports events, buy overpriced concert tickets, and dine lavishly who play the role of victims of government and resent taxes and support for those in need. It makes me wonder, “who would want to serve politically, and is there any hope for, and space for, joy in politics today?”

Years ago in 1993, in the Massey series, Democracy on Trial, Jean Bethke Elshtain, warned that when the politics of difference and division become the order of the day, democracy is at risk. She reminded her listeners and readers that the roots of our democracy founded in Athens saw democratic politics as the actualization of being truly human — fulfilling, satisfying and even pleasurable.

The ancient Greeks regarded politics as the most noble and enjoyable human activity. Everyone was non-partisan, and deemed to be working together for the same goal, something bigger and more worthy than themselves — the well-being of a just city.

The polis, where free men gathered to debate the affairs of Athens, was a place to be free of showmanship and one-upmanship. If speakers tried to outdo each other, it was for imagining better solutions and better reasons — the better ideas, not the smoother speakers, were to be respected.

The joy came from the prevailing civility, camaraderie based upon equality, the rhetorical exchanges, and the search for the most reasonable and meaningful arguments and answers. Men envisioned themselves and each other as statesmen — not winners and losers. Sounds idyllic but possible!

Our democracy has, in fact, improved on those early beginnings. Women, people of colour, and people without property are encouraged to vote in elections and run for office. We strive to educate our young in publicly funded schools regarding their rights and responsibilities as citizens in upholding and safeguarding democracy.

We have a constitution and a bill of rights which declare that we collectively stand for acceptance, equality, and inclusion of all. And we have a justice system and courts to act as a check on those, including governments, who might wish to diminish our democratic ideals. Most of us, and our politicians, have more reasons to be joyful than not. And unhappiness is a poor substitute for gratitude.

It is obviously no time for citizens to let our politicians foster anger, alienation, and disillusionment. They seem to have little appetite or plans to ditch extreme partisanship, or to revere our legislatures and parliament as places where we work together on the country’s problems. We must demand better from our would-be political leaders and ourselves as citizens.

Manitoba has a provincial election coming. We can ask our candidates, will they joyfully do their jobs? Like park partisanship for the common good; respect Indigenous peoples; provide for our most vulnerable; uphold diversity equality and inclusion; combat environmental degradation; fund health care and public education adequately; bargain in good faith; and the like?

Such politics can, and should, be sources of real accomplishment and joy!

John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba.