Dimitri Roussopoulos is a writer, ecologist, and publisher living in Montreal.
Let’s begin with an anecdote. Some three weeks ago I attended an international conference in Geneva on ‘Sustainable Development and Cities’. I arrived on the Monday after the city’s municipal elections. On many of the pages of all the dailies all sorts of informative stories on the elections, the issues, the significance of the voter turnout [over 80%], and the color of the future city council were being reported in depth. The old left [the Parti Socialiste] lost 2%, the Greens gained 5%, the political center and right of center stood still, and the extreme racialist right which opposes immigration gained 9%. In other words, with an electoral system based on proportional representation citizens had a choice to make on the basis of a rich choice. Citizens thus had a clear motive to vote.
The next day and in the days that followed, I was fascinated to follow the debates and resolutions presented before the new city council on a main television channel from 7pm to 10 pm. It was interesting to see and hear the give and take of the different political parties. The TV presentation was not on some obscure cable channel, but on the equivalent of channels 2, 6, 10, or 12. In a word, accessible to everyone.
After the international conference on cities, I spend some research time in the city’s municipal library, newspaper offices, city hall and talking to informed citizens about the particularities of their city politics and their political culture. Compared to Montreal, in almost everyway it’s like comparing night and day.
The Political System is Broken
When only 35% of the electorate went out to vote on the 6 November, the lowest vote turnout in decades [in 1990, 36%, in 1994, 47%, in 1998, 50%, in 2001, 49%] representative democracy showed itself in deep trouble. The system is in crisis and lacks legitimacy. Mayor Gerald Tremblay was re-elected with only 20% of the electorate. The ability of his administration, for instance, to state that it has a mandate “from the people”, with which to lean on those with deep pockets in Quebec City and Ottawa, is weak. The same applies to all other ‘elected’ politicians, no matter what percentage of the minority vote they gained. They represent small minorities within minorities, therefore they have to put water in their wine when the smoke and mirror of politics are staged, and in the next four years they must establish working partnerships with civil society to paste together some legitimacy.
The election was without substance, and without debate. But then again there is no ongoing debate on the major issues facing Montreal. The mass media are deliberately asleep at the wheel, ignoring what is going on at city council and city hall, ignoring the borough councils. There is an unstated but a deliberate policy to keep people ignorant as to what is going on, on a regular basis. The New York Times daily has a regular section devoted to city politics. Why not here? In addition to this politics of public ignorance, City Hall and the borough councils also avoid their responsibilities in keeping people informed directly, through properly advertising council meetings, meetings of commissions and so on. The list of political irresponsibility is long. Then we are piously told, ‘the people are not interested’, the’ people are apathetic’. A self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.
Examining the system rigorously
What is it about this current political system that turns virtually everything into its opposite? In 1974, the Montreal Citizens Movement [MCM] was founded, in six months it contested its first election, and won 18 seats on city council. The turn was an anti-Drapeau manifestation. The MCM had considerable backing from community organizations and trade unions across the city. It became a genuine left-wing party. By the time it was elected to power in 1986, its deformation began; nevertheless it accomplished a number of progressive programs, most notably in housing. By 1989, its left-wing split off, and formed two other parties, one of which was Ecology Montreal [the first municipal Green party in North America with an excellent program] which contested its first elections in 1990 gaining 10% of the popular vote. All of these efforts are now history, absorbed in one way or another by the prevailing political system, with some incremental changes along the way. We briefly recount all this here to alert novices that there is more to political and social change than writing a program and putting up election posters. To go forward we need a profound analysis of our political past.
Getting of the Tread Mill of History
If we wish to be serious about change, we must both study and learn from the past. And we must study and learn from the experiences of others elsewhere and put in our pockets all youthful arrogance which amounts to a childish naiveté which believes it has invented the wheel.
Every effort must be made to change our political culture and political system. The electoral system must be re-vamped into one of proportional representation to allow the fullest expression of political opinion. Until this change takes place we are simply playing at political marbles. We must understand the paramount importance of the political education of ourselves and all our fellow citizens, through seminars, thematic workshops, conferences, and so on. We need an ongoing school of democratic citizenship. Citizenship must be re-defined and given a new meaning. We must come to grips with understanding the politico-economic importance of the city in the evolution of society, and stop being side-tracked by various schemes of political nationalism. When we promote a participatory budget, we are not simply promoting a side issue, but a key to meaningful citizen involvement in the dollars and cents upon which the current political system rests. When we talk budgets in co-operatives, for example, the attendance is at its highest. Because the subject-matter touches an incontrovertible reality. We must insist together that city hall and our borough councils fully and transparently publicize all public decision-making events. Without these and related reforms it is not surprising that only 32% voted on November 6 th on the Plateau, 28% voted in Ville-Marie, 32% in N.D.G./Cote-des-Neiges. This is no more representative democracy than participatory democracy. None of the existing political parties, or politicologues have much to say about this crisis.
While we should be pleased that the right-wing party of Pierre Bourque was prevented from a comeback, and that the Plateau maintained its left-of-center political coherence and consequently we expect it to continue its progressive orientation, the four years should also involve the supporters of Project Montreal.
What must not happen is that we forget what happened on November 6 th, and why, and simply go on as if it’s “business as usual”. Changing the political system and political culture should be the centerpiece on our political agenda. If we do not live in a democratic political system at the level of our city, if we do not have democratic neighborhoods and a democratic city fully representative of all its citizens and all political opinion we should stop the pretense that we live in a truly democratic society. Democratize Democracy.
For more analysis see the following announcement on La Presse’s editorial page of November 8, 2005:
Lisez sur Cyberpresse.ca/opinions un texte de Luc Rabouin, du Groupe de travail sur la démocratie municipale et la citoyenneté/SodecM, qui estime que « la très faible participation aux élections municipales montréalaises devrait inciter le maire Tremblay et son équipe, ainsi que l’ensemble de la population, à réfléchir sérieusement à la santé de la démocratie à Montréal ».
M. Rabouin conclut en ces termes : « Il est de notre responsabilité collective de faire de Montréal une ville où toutes et tous ont le droit et la possibilité de participer à la prise de décisions concernant l’avenir de nos quartiers, de nos arrondissements et de notre ville, car il s’agit bien de NOTRE ville et non de celle de Pierre Bourque ou Gérald Tremblay. »