Early morning trip to Minnesota on a holiday Monday. One downside of working a lot in the United States is that American clients often book me for long weekends. It’s free on my calendar, so it must be okay!

Not too choked to leave on a little trip today though. The weather has been glorious the past few days, the Vancouver Whitecaps have treated us to some fabulous games at BC Place, including a thrilling comeback in the opening leg of the Canadian Championship Cup final and a terrific derby match against Seattle.

But now the rainy weather has moved in, the Pacific high which gets established over the Gulf of Alaska every summer, is yet to settle in so it’s bright grey cloud with light rain, moderate temperatures and no wind. I’m off to Minnesota where I’m looking forward to sunshine and thunderstorms.

Today I am very sad about the current state of our country.

Last fall, the Conservatives won their long sought after majority and this gave the Prime Minister the power to enact his intention to remake Canada so that we would “not recognize it.” And so Stephen Harper and his ministers and back benchers have been busy doing just that, with new legislation, new regulations, a new way of operating the budget and focusing more on values and attributes of Canadian life that reflects their view of the country and who we are.

That is their perogative.  They won the election and the right to set the agenda.

However, this new budget bill, C-38, the much vaunted “Jobs Growth and Long Term Prosperity Act” which is an omnibus bill enacting tons of changes and repeals of existing legislation is something else altogether.  Read it.  It contains provisions that apply across a whole range of areas such as:

• Shutting down the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
• Changing the complaints process for the RCMP
• Repealing the definition of an “insured person” under the Canada Health Act
• Changing the Fisheries Act to create a commercial fishery to fund fisheries conservation science (what??)
• Defining what a poisonous food is, by allowing a certain amount of poison to be present in food.
• Redefining “60 years old” in the Old Age Security Act to mean”62 years old” by 2028.
• Setting up the process to wrap up the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development
• Making substantial changes to the Employment Insurance Act with respect to claimants and payments.
• Wrap up the National Council of Welfare
• The complete construction of a new government department called Shared Services Canada

And this is a small and somewhat random sampling of the things this bill will change.  There are scads and scads of changes that have nothing to do with Jobs, Growth and Long Term Prosperity.  Lots of changes that have to do with centralizing decision making power though.

This bill contains huge amounts of change to the way Canada works, and so you would think that if the government aims to shift the direction of the country all at once, it would be willing to host a conversation about that, maybe even have a little debate on it in the House in which all MPs could participate.  There may be people out there who have something to say about the closing of the National Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment, or on the changes to environmental protection and energy project decision making that places more authority than ever before in the hands of the Minister.  You might think that, in a working democracy, even such a radical plan as this would be allowed the time to be discussed.

And of course you would be wrong.  The review process for this entire 400+ page bill will happen on a single committee and will be wrapped up by June 7.  Major players are being completely shut out of the debate.  For example, Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party and an elected MP will not even be allowed to speak to the bill in Parliament at all and she cannot sit on the committee reviewing it.  She had to resort to a press conference to outline the MAJOR changes that this bill engenders. And this is an elected sitting MP who is also a party leader.

I have things to say about this bill.  I tweet, email and phone my MP, John Weston, who is a Conservative but he never responds.  And it’s not like his twitter stream is full of other mentions…I am the only one knocking on his door on this.  My question is, where do I get to participate in this massive remaking of Canadian federal policy?  Where does my voice get to be heard?

It doesn’t.  My MP doesn’t ever respond, and I can’t force him to.  Perhaps, PERHAPS, this blog post might compel him to say something.  But when even a party leader can’t participate in the process it is clear that the game is up.

I have never felt so disempowered from the public process in my entire life.  Democracy is not about voting once every four years and living with the results.  Even China and Burma allow elections to be held.  Rather, it is about participation.  There is no way at all that my concerns can be officially heard and taken into account.  There is no consultation, there is not even a conversation to be had.  My MP is not out in the constituency holding discussions about what the changes mean and how we feel about them.  There is literally no way to participate at all.

The promise of democracy has been violated.  There is no where to turn to have a say.  I feel like my mouth is full of cotton.

I don’t trust this government at all.  I cannot find a single person who can describe to me the upside of doing it this way. We have had our democratic promise stolen from under our noses, and if this bill is allowed to pass using this process we may look back and regret the day we allowed legislation to be created this way.  We now live very close to the shadow of an autocratic oligarchy, thrown the quardennial bone of a ballot to tick to keep up appearances.

I am sad for Canada.  What else am I supposed to feel?

Everywhere.

It happens on every scale. A community, a nation, a people becomes bitterly divided on an issue and the civic conversation deteriorates to become nasty, rhetorically or physically violent and entrenched. Suspicion arises on every side and distrust, camps, territory and accusations fly. Perhaps someone launches a lawsuit, someone else accuses someone of unethical behavior. People who come forward to help are shot down if they can’t be pinned down.

It feels like we are going through that on my little Island at the moment. Yes it is a #firstworldproblem, and in more ways than one, for what we are going through is happening all over the place at the moment.

Groups go through this kind of thing all the time. But this breakdown of the public conversation creates difficult problems and has real costs. When the public conversation is throttled by power or bullying or other non-dialogue behaviors we pay a real price.

So what to do? Well, for one I like Peter Block’s take on things: transform the conversation starting with how you meet and then what you talk about. You cannot have a new conversation in the old format, so let’s get rid of the talking heads and the power points and the raised tables. It’s time to all come to the same level and discuss declarations of possibility that would inspire us all towards some action.

We need to find common purpose together, to open ourselves to each other and to host our own stuff so that we can hear other people and offer advocacy of our positions and ideas that makes us easy to be heard in return. We need to start from a place of renewed trust and good faith, even in people that might take advantage of our naïveté in doing so. We need to do that because restoring quality relationships is the only way to reboot the democratic conversation so that we might engage in some truly beautiful community building, nation building.

So, what declaration of possibility for your community can you make that joule inspire us all? What opinion, attitude or behaviour do you commit to letting go of so that a little more space can be opened? The work of cultivating possibility starts with all of us, and the burden is on skeptics. Transform your doubt into clear and legitimate dissent but keep your hope strong. Find someone across the aisle with whom you can reboot this precious space of democratic engagement, and don’t let the cynics drive you apart. In the end, only they will gain.