Many Canadians aren’t voting. Have they stopped caring about democracy?

Good piece recognizing the risks on ongoing political disengagement from Michael Adams and Maryantonett Flumian:

One stand-out finding from our recent study was the growing proportions of Canadians who say that if the country were facing “very difficult times” it would be justified for the Prime Minister to close down parliament (23 per cent) or dissolve the Supreme Court (17 per cent) and rule alone. These remain minority views, but both have grown over the past few years; the proportion saying it might be acceptable to shut down Parliament has doubled (from 11 per cent in 2010) and growth in this authoritarian sentiment has been most marked among the young. (Our survey was conducted before the October attacks on Canadian soldiers in Quebec and on Parliament Hill.)

A Canada in which a strongman rules without interference from Parliament or the courts is not exactly imminent. (Canadians’ only taste of any such override was during the October Crisis of 1970; in those frightening times the public gave permission and leaders exercised the extraordinary powers of the War Measures Act only briefly.) Still, disengagement from politics, shrugging about the concentration of power, and low trust (just 20 per cent of Canadians say they respect our political institutions a lot) is a combination to take seriously.

What measures might shift the tide and increase trust, engagement, and participation? Some favour mandatory voting. Others proportional representation. Still others think a change as simple as letting people cast ballots online would help a lot. One or all of these might make a difference. Or we might be entering an era in which politics and government are no longer at the heart of civic participation.

One can imagine a world in which people express their democratic values at home, at work, in the marketplace, and through volunteer and other projects, not by marking a secret ballot. But the stubborn question remains: if Canadians truly unplug from politics, who will guard the guardians of the political institutions it took our civilization a thousand years to build?

Many Canadians aren’t voting. Have they stopped caring about democracy? – The Globe and Mail.