Despite the recent Occupy protests, I’m concerned that democracy in Canada is in trouble. Evidence for this is in each election we have recently experienced, and there have been plenty lately. Every time we are called to the polls the numbers decline, even though as an aging society we should see those trends reverse (older people tend to vote more). There is a lot of hand wringing among the pundits about what to do about it, and I think we need to start with the quality of existing governments.

Over the last 30 years, an increasingly hardened right-wing has replaced progressive governments in North America, culminating in the Harper American-style neoconservativism.

One consequence of this right is a more extremist public politic where decency and respect for others and other ideas has gone by the board. What was once unspeakable is now spoken, and voices once silent become loud and unashamedly shrill. Too often those voices are angry and at times hateful and prejudicial. We saw this in the last federal election when a reporter was questioning Mr. Harper, and a mob formed and started threatening him. Even simple questioning of his positions was seen by his supporters as intolerable.

The response to this by more thoughtful and moderate minds has been far, far too weak. Perturbed and even appalled by the deterioration of politics (given that participation is truly voluntary), many simply have chosen to not participate.

The problem is that that response, although understandable, is akin to pretending to not see the homeless man begging on the street; we fool ourselves that if we ignore it, maybe it will go away.

Statistics on both side of the border show that the gains of the right in the last US and Canadian elections was not due to a sudden upswell of preference for right-wing politics, but a staying away of more moderate voters from the polls.

More and more young people are choosing not to get involved in politics or participate in democracy. Given that the older one is the more likely you are to vote, the preference for far-right politicians represents a demographic trend, not a society-wide endorsement of their policies and beliefs. What it says about older people in society is unfortunate, as it supports the stereotype of the crabby, out-of-touch senior railing against the world and his diminished power in it.

The results however, speak for themselves: what we see now are the political choices of most people’s parents and grandparents, which is hardly the best choice to lead us through the 21^st century. What we have seen this last year is that angry, hateful and ignorant politics has alienated so many moderate citizens that angry, hateful and ignorant people have voted as a majority and delivered their choices to power.

You can argue the merits of disbanding the Canadian Wheat Board, but the omnibus crime bill? Crime in Canada is the lowest in 40 years, and yet we have a government toughening laws to punish rather then rehabilitate. We know that incarceration does nothing to improve crime stats or outcomes, yet we will now have minimum mandatory sentences, even for petty crimes such as pot possession. Prison guards no longer have to choose the least violent means to quell problems in prisons. Judges can no longer look at mitigating circumstances when deliberating sentences.

This kind of hang-‘em-high mentality arises in fear and hate, the belief being that once you cross a certain social line you are deemed dispensable as a citizen, having no intrinsic value.

I could go on with examples – there are a great many of them to choose from, especially in the areas of environment and climate change – but the point is made. Edmund Burke said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, and recent events in Canada has borne this out. Human suffering will increase due to the complacency of decent people, and such is the road to hell paved.

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