Are there lessons from Brexit that should be a wake up call to all politicians here in Canada? Was this truly a referendum on Britain leaving the European Union, or was this more a statement of the dissatisfaction with representative democracy? Down south, we have seen similar leanings with the Trump and Sanders campaigns, which lend credibility to this: people are fed up with political elitism.
We, ourselves, saw this last year with our own two elections, one that ousted the Conservative dynasty of 44 years: the governments had become complacent, and bloodless “revolutions” had taken place. Sadly, and depending on which elements of society one speaks with, nothing has truly changed, with people feeling evermore anxious.
It is this fear and anxiety, which has been allowed to fester for decades, which has led to this populist outpouring, and frustration and anger are quickly augmenting these sentiments. The people no longer believe they are of concern to politicians, the political elite, which has been looking out for their own interests, along with those of large corporations. They are feeling disenfranchised, without any control of their lives. Elections and referenda have given them a sense of hope, but that soon dissipates, leaving regret and a “voters’ hangover.”
Irresponsible media and politicians have exploited these emotions with populist arguments, regardless of facts, and this has incited people. We see this with the growth of nationalist ideals, xenophobia, anti-globalization, anti-intellectualism, which are all disturbing in their own right, but we are also seeing open violence being directed toward politicians, which should be triggering alarm bells on the health of our society.
At the heart of the peoples’ concerns is economic insecurity, as the costs of living are continually rising and jobs are no longer secure, and people know they are now falling behind, in danger of losing everything. In the past, we would turn to our political institutions to allay such fears, as we had been taught and conditioned to believe in them. We are now seeing that, however, this trust has been misplaced, as time after time they have broken faith with us.
Maybe it is our naivety that has allowed us to be exploited in this fashion. Maybe we could accept that our politicians are powerless, for the most part, if they were more up front with us, but they would first need to climb down from their thrones and party benches and start to represent the people again. Otherwise, we will slide more and more into the morass of populist politics, which will continually threaten the cohesion of our society, pulling us further down. Eventually, this will create its own backlash, which we may not be able to recover from, which is the dilemma Britain now has to deal with: to ignore the referendum is to disregard the voice of the people and to bring into question democracy itself. And if that is the case, it undermines the credibility of all elections.
John Kennair is an international consultant and doctor of laws who lives in St. Albert.
