Pearson: We need more from our leaders

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Where, once, we were tired of the anger, now, we are sick of it. The constant negativity characterizing public life in this country seems increasingly un-Canadian. Where people once lived their lives with a sense of peaceful purpose, they now stare at the angry clouds and wonder where we went wrong.

The average Canadian still works hard, loves their family, and takes pride in where they live. But those dark skies have grown thick with heated, angry words that cut and leave wounds that can’t seem to heal. Canadians watch the leaders of the public sphere make a mess of things – budgets, policies, hegemony, ideals – and they long for enlightened, principled women and men who can lead them down a different path. But we more often get words shouted from high places that speak not to bring understanding but to divide us.

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Then, we look in the mirror and realize such dysfunction in our public lives is affecting us personally. We are having more trouble trusting, seeking the good in others, feeling we can make a difference where we live. It doesn’t mean we’re not angry; we’re just tired of feeling angst all the time.

Political leaders seem to feel the best way to get our support is to incite rather than inspire us. It might have worked for a time, but there is a growing understanding that people around the world are looking for something better. Verbal wars are leaving people exhausted across the entire political spectrum. They want to be able to sit with a friend in a coffee shop again and talk about what they share in common: love of family, a future for their kids, a home filled with nurture and respect, and a community filled with trust and vibrant life.

They are tired of the toxic. They feel bruised and battered by it all. They hunger to learn of good things, of occasions when people overcame their differences to build better communities. They miss the days when they could go about their business without being told whom they should hate, whom they should fear, whom they should blame for their troubles. Overcome by the incessant divisive background noise of their lives, they yearn to hear their kids laugh, to learn of forgiveness, and to listen to the enhancing sounds of a community at peace with itself.

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The problem is that we don’t know how to get it back, how to resurrect a public life with leaders who know how to build it. Tired of being mere pawns in political battles, they long to be co-participants in a new kind of democracy that is more respectful.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy in all this dysfunction is that good people, tired of divisions and rancour, refuse to vote (consider voter turnout in our last civic campaign) and turn away from collective life, seeking solace in the more personal things that still bring them joy. They spend less time online and feel better for turning off the endless stream of negativity that had once consumed them. They rediscover life without incessantly hearing all the opinions of others. Many are now turning toward this state of being. What they have seen this week in Parliament, Queen’s Park, and City Hall only confirms their sentiment.

But maybe not for long. We hear every day of ordinary people beginning to push back. Understanding that their kids will lose out if they turn away, they are beginning to fight for a better future, for the things that matter and have always mattered. They ask for their politicians to just sit quietly and listen to the sound of a people seeking a more meaningful and more inclusive public life. This isn’t pie-in-the-sky dreaming but the very stuff that initially built our community, and we want it back, only even better.

Glen Pearson is co-director of the London Food Bank and a former Liberal MP for London North Centre. glen@glenpearson.ca

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