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    DEMOCRACY

    Natural Resources
    October 23, 2015
    Peter Tertzakian on Our Great Energy Industry premium
    Peter Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist and Managing Director of ARC Financial Interviewed on September 11, 2014 by Brenna Atnikov. Atnikov: What is happening in Canada that is catching your attention? Tertzakian: The oil and gas industry is undergoing its biggest change in 100 years. Environmental, political, resource, and demographic issues are all colliding at once […]
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    Preston Manning on Reconciling Economy and Environment
    Tzeporah Berman on Resisting Climate Change
    David Emerson on Game-Changing Leadership
    Mark Jaccard on Responsible Growth
    Natural Resources
    October 23, 2015
    Preston Manning on Reconciling Economy and Environment premium
    Preston Manning, President of the Manning Centre for Democracy Interviewed on September 16, 2014 by Brenna Atnikov.  Atnikov: When you look at Canada, what’s got your attention? Manning: I’d like Canada to be the best-governed democracy in the world, with the strongest economy and the highest quality of life. One way to strengthen democratic governance […]
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    Peter Tertzakian on Our Great Energy Industry
    Tzeporah Berman on Resisting Climate Change
    David Emerson on Game-Changing Leadership
    Mark Jaccard on Responsible Growth
    Democratic Institutions
    October 18, 2015
    Michael Chong on Parliamentary Reform premium
    Michael Chong, Member of Parliament for Wellington-Halton Hills Interviewed on September 26, 2014 by Adam Kahane. Kahane: What keeps you up at night? Chong: One of our challenges is the need to renew our democratic institutions. Democracy is one of the greatest inventions of western society. The checks and balances on power that exist through […]
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    Tamara Vrooman on Economic Democracy
    Brian Crowley on Our Institutional Legacy
    Danny Graham on Citizen Engagement
    Michel Venne on Participation
    Democratic Institutions
    October 18, 2015
    Danny Graham on Citizen Engagement premium
    Danny Graham, Former Leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and Founding Chair of Engage Nova Scotia   Interviewed on July 2, 2014 by Adam Kahane. Kahane: What concerns you about what’s going on in Canada? Graham: Since the 1990s, there has been more edginess in our political leadership. Politicians are more dismissive and disrespectful […]
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    Michael Chong on Parliamentary Reform
    Tamara Vrooman on Economic Democracy
    Brian Crowley on Our Institutional Legacy
    Michel Venne on Participation
    Pluralism
    October 18, 2015
    Simon Brault on Reinventing Ourselves premium
    Simon Brault, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts   Interviewed on November 5, 2014 by Brenna Atnikov. Atnikov: How has your personal story shaped your perspective? Brault: For more than 25 years, I have been preoccupied by ways in which we can revitalize cities. To me, arts and culture are essential components […]
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    Nadia Duguay on a Canada for All
    Pat Carney on the Challenges of Migration
    Jean-Paul Restoule on Building Relationships
    Michael Green on Telling Our Story
    Canada in the world
    October 18, 2015
    Farah Mohamed on Our Competitive Advantage premium
    Farah Mohamed, CEO of G(irls)20   Interviewed on September 19, 2014 by Brenna Atnikov. Atnikov: When you look at Canada, what’s got your attention? Mohamed: The diverse make-up of our country is one of our competitive advantages. In an increasingly globalized, interconnected world, it’s a competitive edge for any organization or country to have a […]
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    Khalil Shariff on the Virtue of Pluralism
    Suzanne Fortier on a Smart and Caring Nation
    Yuen Pau Woo on Our Relationship with Asia
    Tanzeel Merchant on How We Live
    Innovation
    October 18, 2015
    Zahra Ebrahim on Designing a Better Future premium
    Zahra Ebrahim, Principal and Founder of archiTEXT   Interviewed on November 10, 2014 by Brenna Atnikov. Atnikov: How has your work shaped your perspective? Ebrahim: Designers are uniquely positioned to look at complexity, for two reasons: we understand people and we are comfortable testing prototypes. When charged with a problem, designers begin by looking at […]
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    Jim Balsillie on Commercializing Our Ideas
    Annette Verschuren on Economic Innovation
    Ratna Omidvar on Growth through Diversity
    Building healthy communities
    October 18, 2015
    Alex Himelfarb on Our Weakening of the Collective premium
    Alex Himelfarb, Former Clerk of the Privy Council   Interviewed on June 23, 2014 by Adam Kahane. Kahane: What keeps you up at night? Himelfarb: The number one issue for me is inequality. Let’s think of the bottom, middle, and top of society. On the bottom, even if, as some argue, over the past few […]
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    Janet Rossant on a Hub of Creativity
    Zita Cobb on Valuing Our Small Communities
    Sheila Watt-Cloutier on the Right to be Cold
    Five Young Activists on Community
    Building healthy communities
    October 18, 2015
    Anne Golden on Resilient Cities premium
    Anne Golden, Former CEO of the Conference Board of Canada   Interviewed on September 12, 2014 by Adam Kahane. Kahane: What is going on in Canada that you think needs attention? Golden: Two forces are transforming the world, globalization and urbanization. Both focus on cities. By globalization, I mean all of the changes that have […]
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    Sheila Watt-Cloutier on the Right to be Cold
    Alex Himelfarb on Our Weakening of the Collective
    Democratic Institutions
    October 15, 2015
    Angus Reid on the State of Our Democracy premium
    Angus Reid, Chairman of the Angus Reid Institute Interviewed on September 30, 2014 by Monica Pohlmann. Pohlmann: What’s on the mind of Canadians these days? Reid: Twenty years ago, healthcare was number five on the list of issues of concern to Canadians. It is now number one. They sense that the quality of the system […]
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    Michael Chong on Parliamentary Reform
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    Brian Crowley on Our Institutional Legacy
    Danny Graham on Citizen Engagement

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      Possible Canadas is a partnership of diverse organizations that share the goal of supporting forward-looking conversations about the future of Canada. The project is produced by Discourse Media and Reos Partners, in collaboration with RECODE and the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. Partners’ support does not imply endorsement of the views represented. Contact us at possiblecanadas@discoursemedia.org.

      ©2015 Discourse Media - Collaborative solutions journalism

      From 1870 to 1996, more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were placed in residential schools and forbidden to speak their language and practice their culture. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) estimates there are 80,000 former students living today, and that the ongoing impact of residential schools are a major contributor to challenges facing modern Aboriginal populations.

      Canada’s TRC is one of many commissions worldwide to undertake revealing and resolving past wrongdoings, mostly by governments. Other examples include:

      South Africa

      In 1996, President Nelson Mandela authorized a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to study the effects of apartheid in South Africa. The commission allowed victims of human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, but also allowed perpetrators of violence to request amnesty from criminal prosecution.

      Argentina

      The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, initiated in 1983, investigated human rights violations, including 30,000 forced disappearances, committed during the Dirty War.

      Guatemala

      The Historical Clarification Commission was created in 1994 in an effort to reconcile Guatemala after a 36-year civil war. The commission issued a report in 1999 which estimated that more 200,000 people were killed or disappeared as a result of the conflict.

      In June, the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission released 94 “calls to action” to “redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.”

      The scope of recommendations range from child welfare to education to Indigenous language rights, and has recommendations targeted for private and public spheres of Canadian life alike. The document calls upon law schools in Canada to require all students to take a course in Aboriginal people and the law, for example. Notably, the document calls upon the federal government to appoint a public inquiry into the causes of, and remedies for, the disproportionate victimization of Aboriginal women and girls.  

      The 11-page document can be read here.             

      http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf

      MMP

      STV

      Canada’s employment statistics are much better now than they were 20 years ago. In 2012 for example, 61.8% of working-age Canadians were employed as opposed to 58.7% in 1995. The unemployment rate has gone down from 9.5% in 1995 to 6.8% in 2014. Youth unemployment has gone down too, from 16.1% to 13.5% in the same time period. The outlier in these trends is labour force participation, or the amount of working-age Canadians who are either employed, or unemployed and looking for work. Right now, participation is at the lowest rate since the year 2000, mainly because the “baby-boomer” generation is moving towards retirement. Read more about that here.

      Housing preferences among Millennials, however, tend towards smaller, higher density housing close to activities, signs that changing economic realities and the generation shift will create more demand for housing in compact, walkable neighbourhoods.

      Belfry-Munroe suspects that youth disinterest has to do with political parties. “There’s been a lack of engagement one-on-one with people since the 1970s, and a greater focus on mass media and now things like social media,” says Belfry-Munroe. “The other thing is that parties have become uncool,” she continues, “and I think that getting excited about the election without parties is like getting excited about the World Series without the teams. If you weren’t excited about the Blue Jays, you would not be concerned about the World Series.”

      To extend this analogy, young Canadians currently aren’t even interested in baseball. What could work to change this would be getting other types of fans — soccer, golf, darts, you name it — engaged in baseball due to their passion for sports in general. Politically, this is the bridge that is missing for youth. The Blue Jays don’t matter if youth are removed from sports. Similarly, political parties and leaders would have little relevance if youth are removed from electoral politics.

      “The generational effect is even larger [than the life cycle effect]. At the same age, turnout is 3 or 4 points lower among baby boomers than it was among pre-baby boomers, 10 points lower among generation X than it was among baby boomers, and another 10 points lower among the most recent generation than it was among generation X at the same age.”

      — An excerpt from “Why Was Turnout So Low?” in Anatomy of a Liberal Victory by Andre Blais, Elisabeth Gidengil, Richard Nadeau and Neil Nevitte.

      Rock The Vote also published a Youth Voter Strategy Report in 2007 that compiled many scholarly findings on this subject. You can find that here.

      According to Elections Canada, “people are less likely to cast a ballot if they feel they have no influence over government actions, do not feel voting is an essential civic act, or do not feel the election is competitive enough to make their votes matter to the outcome, either at the national or the local constituency level.” Read more here.

      The trend of youth voter disengagement persists across much of the developed world. According to the Economist, for example, in 2010 just 44 per cent of people aged 18 to 24 voted in Britain’s general election compared to 76% of those aged 65 and over. America saw its lowest voter turnout ever in its 2014 midterm elections, where just 19.9 per cent of young people voted, compared to an overall turnout rate of 36.4 per cent. This trend tends to change, however, when charismatic politicians reach out to youth. According to Politico, Barack Obama would have lost the 2012 American presidential election without youth voting — overwhelmingly for him. Read more here.


       

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