Lessons from Ottawa and how to win back our democracy

The Freedom Convoy in Ottawa has now been dismantled. The movement which saw thousands of people across Canada unite over their collective mistrust of government and institutions no longer occupies the streets of Canada’s capital. The solution to getting the borders open and thus our economy (or what's left of it) moving again was to use the Emergencies Act. It did nothing to quell the justified mistrust, however. The solution to this growing discontent is not going to be by suspending our civil rights. The solution is to actually have institutions we can trust.

We live in a time of massive economic inequality and there is little being done about it. It seems like no national federal party is serious about it, including the current form of the NDP, which used to be a progressive populist party.

All the major parties now cater to the neoliberal notion of the individual. This includes the Conservatives, who pretend to support ordinary working Canadians by appealing to their cultural grievances. The mirage collapses instantly when you point out that their pro-corporate, anti-union, small government agenda is harmful to workers, their families, and the environment, and only benefits the wealthy.

The Liberals don’t even pretend to support ordinary working Canadians and instead go all in on offering empty cultural platitudes while having the same pro-corporate agenda as the Cons. As seen from the distribution of Covid relief, the Liberals do like big government spending but only when it is funnelled to corporations and the wealthy. It is hard to dismiss the anger many Canadians have towards those in power when they all seem to be working against us.

If we want to avoid further social and economic unrest, our country needs to go in a different direction. We need to listen to each other instead of condemning and shaming each other. We need to work together in unity and see past our flaws instead of fighting each other over purity tests. We need to put the needs of the community ahead of the wants of the individual. We can have a society of individual flourishing but only inside a supportive community.

The next iteration of the Freedom Convoy is going to learn from their mistakes in Ottawa, just like they did from their predecessor Yellow Vest movement. Defeating the growth of the far-right means acknowledging real grievances and countering their narrative with an inclusive left-wing populism. It won’t be easy and it might challenge your own political beliefs but this is the only way to save our democracy.