Ottawa

The best and worst in democracy

The anti-prorogation rallies of January 23rd win Samara’s search for the best moment in Canadian democracy last year.

Does this defensive trend bear ill for the health of Canadian democracy?  According to Professor Chantal Mouffe, “Democracy is a fragile construction: never definitively acquired, it is a conquest which has to be forever defended against possible attacks. The prime task of democratic politics is not to eliminate passions, nor to relegate them to the private sphere…but to mobilize these passions, and give them a democratic outlet.”  This suggests that these protests may, in fact, testify to a democratic culture that is more robust than we realize.

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