Last week, the mayor of Ottawa, Mark Sutcliffe, issued an impassioned plea for greater civility in Canadian politics in The Globe and Mail.
The problem was not just social media, he wrote, which could be managed by avoiding it, but rather the physical threats that Canadian holders of elected office, their families, and their staff were facing all-too-regularly.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure that bullying, threats and abusive behaviour are not tolerated in workplaces or classrooms,” he noted. Why do so many Canadians believe that the political space was different?
The abuse is causing some politicians to resign mid-mandate, and potential leaders to refuse to seek public office in the first place.
I empathize with Sutcliffe’s plea – I recently encouraged an extraordinary leader to apply for a position Senate and they refused because of the increasing toxicity within it. (And the Senate is not nearly as bad as the House of Commons.)
Still, I am afraid that in his efforts to fight back against charges that elected officials should just ‘suck it up,’ – which he rightly dismisses as victim-blaming – Sutcliffe minimizes the role that the political class has played in creating this atmosphere.
Whether they like it or not, elected officials in liberal democracies are role models. Their behaviour shapes national norms.
When Canadians see the shameless mudslinging, crass behaviour, and deliberate dishonesty that characterizes not just Question Period, but now also discussion in certain Parliamentary committees, not to mention provincial legislatures and even municipal council meetings, some inevitably conclude that such behaviour is reasonable.
Add social media, which only increases the intensity of everyone’s emotions, and it’s not hard to see how we end up with vandalism, threats, and even violence towards politicians.
There is no easy solution here, but there is an obvious first step that every elected official can take.
Behave in public settings in a manner that would make Canadian children proud. Stop heckling, and call out those who don’t – even if they come from your political tribe. Keep in mind that you are elected to represent Canadians writ large, not just the ones who voted for you.
(Indeed, based on what they say about one another, one might think that the prime minister and the leader of the opposition don’t see one another as Canadians at all.)
In sum, Sutcliffe is right that politicians, their families, and their staff don’t deserve the abuse that they now face regularly in their public and private lives.
But that does not absolve elected leaders of the responsibility to stop perpetuating an environment in which such toxic behaviour thrives.
***
One institution doing consistently good work on trying to bring decency back to politics is the Samara Centre for Democracy. We need more of that.
***
To be notified of my next post, follow me on X (Twitter) @achapnick or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-chapnick/.
You can subscribe to my newsletter at https://buttondown.email/achapnick.
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The problem was not just social media, he wrote, which could be managed by avoiding it, but rather the physical threats that Canadian holders of elected office, their families, and their staff were facing all-too-regularly.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure that bullying, threats and abusive behaviour are not tolerated in workplaces or classrooms,” he noted. Why do so many Canadians believe that the political space was different?
The abuse is causing some politicians to resign mid-mandate, and potential leaders to refuse to seek public office in the first place.
I empathize with Sutcliffe’s plea – I recently encouraged an extraordinary leader to apply for a position Senate and they refused because of the increasing toxicity within it. (And the Senate is not nearly as bad as the House of Commons.)
Still, I am afraid that in his efforts to fight back against charges that elected officials should just ‘suck it up,’ – which he rightly dismisses as victim-blaming – Sutcliffe minimizes the role that the political class has played in creating this atmosphere.
Whether they like it or not, elected officials in liberal democracies are role models. Their behaviour shapes national norms.
When Canadians see the shameless mudslinging, crass behaviour, and deliberate dishonesty that characterizes not just Question Period, but now also discussion in certain Parliamentary committees, not to mention provincial legislatures and even municipal council meetings, some inevitably conclude that such behaviour is reasonable.
Add social media, which only increases the intensity of everyone’s emotions, and it’s not hard to see how we end up with vandalism, threats, and even violence towards politicians.
There is no easy solution here, but there is an obvious first step that every elected official can take.
Behave in public settings in a manner that would make Canadian children proud. Stop heckling, and call out those who don’t – even if they come from your political tribe. Keep in mind that you are elected to represent Canadians writ large, not just the ones who voted for you.
(Indeed, based on what they say about one another, one might think that the prime minister and the leader of the opposition don’t see one another as Canadians at all.)
In sum, Sutcliffe is right that politicians, their families, and their staff don’t deserve the abuse that they now face regularly in their public and private lives.
But that does not absolve elected leaders of the responsibility to stop perpetuating an environment in which such toxic behaviour thrives.
***
One institution doing consistently good work on trying to bring decency back to politics is the Samara Centre for Democracy. We need more of that.
***
To be notified of my next post, follow me on X (Twitter) @achapnick or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-chapnick/.
You can subscribe to my newsletter at https://buttondown.email/achapnick.
k here to edit.
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