Canada's Pivotal Moment

Canada, like other western societies, is facing an existential crisis. It is self-inflicted with no quick fixes, and no scapegoating. Intransigence must become a social revolution.

"The farther we stray from truth, the more ruthless its return.

Sixty years ago Canadian philosopher George Grant wrote a very prophetic book as philosophers are wont to do. They are among the wise men of our societies among others, too rarely consulted. We live in times now where history, the human experience, also known as “the humanities”, are pushed into the abyss in favor of the great crimes and profanities of our time. These range from endless wars, to endless greed—the blind worship of the golden calf— and adopting ruinous ideologies that dehumanize our existence leading to compulsive barbarous behaviors.

Grant predicted that Canada was on its way to becoming a colony of the USA. The time frame would vary according to various events in the interim that would either accelerate it or slow it down— now, so easily identifiable. Even then there were strong indicators his prediction would hold as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What he could not predict is whether the country would just linger on as a slumbering colony or eventually seek or be coerced into a formal union with the empire. Did Canada and Canadians have the level of societal consciousness and vigor that would insure survival as an independent sovereign nation? The times, the appetites of the empire and the submissiveness of Canada’s political elites leave us where we are today facing formal union with a empire in decline and corrupted up to its eye balls.

Early in the game, in post war years, Canada’s political elites made the decision the country would be sacrificed as a commercial expedience to the empire. It would ride the coat tails of the empire oblivious to the fact that giving away economic sovereignty collapses political sovereignty and independence. Silence is compliance and empires come to expect it in full. Where there is a power vacuum others are more than willing to fill it.

When The Mad Hatter of Washington refers to Canada as the 51st state he is being rude, but he also speaks the truth. Over too many decades Canada’s political elites have let the country slide into full colonial status where our options are narrowed to sliver thin and elections are no more than token exercises.

When Brian Mulroney sold out the country to neoliberalism in the1980s that was the final death knell of Canadian sovereignty. Canadians sensed the betrayal and destroyed his party in the next election, but did not realize the magnitude of the betrayal as neoliberalism was now the operating system for Canada and all parties tacitly pledged allegiance to it.

Neoliberalism has the stated goal of denigrating government out of existence which is where we are now.

Canadians are not alone in this poly-crisis. As the collective West, all 32 NATO member states are suffering the ravages of too many wars, too much militarism, too much colonization. All of the above are deleterious to functioning societies over decades in time. The very issues we ignore are the ones destroying us. We indulge in reckless and ruinous ideologies without any regard for their social impacts and the deadening of our societies.

Politicians aren’t bound by what is essential and has to be done. They are self-serving creatures only going so far as to see themselves re-elected. More than ever in these times their first loyalty is to tenure, and least of all the public and nation they are sworn to serve.

Elections in these times serve no real purpose other than a blank cheque for political parties to further exploit and impoverish the public good.

The survival of societies is solely dependent on our ability to internalize the lessons of history and project the essential and appropriate policies and practices into the future. Where democratic process is flawed and corrupted abject failure is knocking on the door.

Canada’s federal election remains an obligatory nod to a stagnant status quo. Only with the political and moral courage to re-purpose our future can we adapt to a rapidly changing world. As it is, the collective West appears determined to descend into a new Dark Age, one as enduring as our refusal to envision and build more viable futures.

Responding to the threats coming from south of the border politicians in this election cycle are making some very lofty promises, most notably both the Liberals and Conservative as the major players. Both parties over many decades have been instrumental in creating the crisis we face. Now more than ever political parties do not have the vigor or integrity to follow through on election promises. They play little role in defining their societies. They exist as catering services to the vested interests controlling them. If they are sincere in their convictions to build a better Canada and re-promise the future they are going to have to mount direct challenges to the neoliberalism that now frames our societies in favor of the very rich, the corporatocracy and endless wars.

“The Slump Factor” calibrates how politicians, after elections, quickly abandon their lofty promises and slump back into the same tired routines, leaving voters disillusioned and questioning the sincerity of campaign rhetoric."

The road back from stagnant to dynamic government is long and rocky and will require a powerful reassertion of democratic and humanistic values and norms. Raising the Slump Factor to acceptable levels will be many years in the making.

We are at that critical pivot point George Grant warned us was coming sixty years ago. It is here and now.

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