John Ibbitson had a good article about this yesterday. His point was that yes the U.S. political dialogue is often more confrontational and charged but maybe that's just because they care about their politics alot more than Canadians.
I don't know what the polling numbers show between Canada and the U.S. Canada has higher participation rates but really voting is a pretty weak proxy for political engagement. If anything high voting rates and low levels of debate and dialogue indicate a blasse or disassociated feeling to the system. Kind of like going and stamping your card every four years and then forgetting about it.
When was the last time that people in Canada became really politically engaged with a domestic cause, legislation, issue like in the U.S? (Opposition to the Iraq war doesn't count). I think my point is that Canada's political culture and our affectation to politics is nothing to be proud of.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1241177/
Quote:
Americans argue so furiously because there is much to argue about: the health-care and immigration systems are utterly dysfunctional, and the administration and Congress are racking up trillion-dollar deficits with no clear understanding of how to bring them down.
They argue because U.S. society is cleaved by region, race and class more deeply than in Canada. But they also argue because they care. They believe their federal government matters and they have strong opinions about how that government should act.
Canada always struggled to define itself as a nation, and in recent years appears to have given up that struggle, retreating into regional isolation. What Canadian federal politician has a clear sense of what this country should look like in the 21st century?
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I for one am very nervous about Canada in the future. Seperated by regional differences and identities, lead by politicians of which none have articulated a vision or even a direction for Canada in the next 50 years, churned by an economy overly dependent on a low dollar to offset terrible productivity and innovation and you have the ingredients for long-term decline.