The inauguration of a US president. The search for a new leader for both the federal and provincial Liberal parties. Municipal and federal elections happening this year. There’s a lot going on in the world of politics.
Candidates calculating how best to play the hand they’ve been dealt. Optimizing their likability factor. Vying for your support through carefully-crafted TV ads. It can all seem a bit much.

But consider the alternative.

Imagine you didn’t have the opportunity to help choose the people who govern us? What if we lived in a part of the world where there are no elections, or where there are fake elections, where opponents are jailed or killed and the outcome is completely rigged? Where there is no democratic tradition of respect for human rights, free speech, a free press, the rule of law, fair trials or for government transparency and accountability. Where ethnic and religious minorities are vulnerable to discrimination, deprivation, deportation, incarceration or genocidal elimination. Where you don’t dare express any views that are not in line with those of the people in charge.

But here we have the right to choose. We do it by secret ballot, so nobody knows your political preference and so can’t hold it against you. There are scrutineers who verify that the vote is conducted fairly and the ballots are counted honestly. There is a free press that can independently verify and publish the results. Here, the winners have the civility to acknowledge the contributions of their predecessors, the losers graciously accept defeat, and both participate in the orderly transfer of power.

These are not just democratic niceties. It is all crucial to maintaining public confidence in our electoral system. Because the minute we lose confidence in the peaceful approach to changing governments, what is left are the non-peaceful options. Rebellion, revolution, conflict and coup.

Democracy is like a muscle. You need to exercise it or it will wither away. As citizens, we have not just the right to exercise our democratic rights, we have the responsibility. We need to be informed of the issues. If the issues under discussion don’t include matters of importance to us, we need to speak up and get them on the agenda. We have the means to do so by showing up to public meetings and speaking our minds. By writing letters to the editors of newspapers. We have the right to express ourselves.

The Pontiac has great potential, but to transform the possibilities into reality starts with us, the electorate. Governments at all levels are there to serve us. It is our responsibility to assert our needs, to express our aspirations for the society in which we live, to encourage candidates we think have the potential to achieve the outcomes we hope for.

Perhaps we would do well to become more like France, where the people take their democracy very seriously. Where the moment there is a transgression, the people are in the streets with placards and chants, marching on the legislature. Maybe it is because they still remember their cities being filled with the occupying army of a fascist regime, or because the storming of the Bastille still forms a foundational part of their collective psyche.

So, consider this a call not to arms but to use the democratic means available to all of us to shape our collective destiny. Discuss issues with your family, friends and neighbours. Test your arguments, build support for your vision. Write letters. Go to meetings. Volunteer to help candidates. Help choose our next generation of leaders. Offer to become one yourself. Any of us can run for election.

Let’s do something great with our hard-won democracy, something befitting all the sacrifice that has been made by our forebearers to protect it, something for which our descendants will be grateful.