Humanity’s predictions are more often than not folly. On that dependable truth gambling enterprises amass fortunes.
Still, one of the safer forecasts to be made as 2024 arrives is that however noxious and infuriating were the politics of 2023, the new year is apt to be even more trying.
Our problems are serious, gusting up to existential. To respond, our governance and politics must be serious as well.
There can be little patience for politics as usual, for the listlessness that has seemed to bedevil Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for the unrelenting partisanship of Pierre Poilievre, for the blundering cycle of misjudgment-apology-reversal of Premier Doug Ford.
When housing is unobtainable, food is unaffordable and health care is inaccessible, we stand upon a tinderbox of anxiety and fear.
At the federal level in Canada, an election is coming into sight, meaning the poll-emboldened Poilievre is apt to grow more partisan yet, and the comparative amity that saw New Democrats buttressing Trudeau's minority government is likely to wane.
In Ontario, the arrival on the job of new Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie promises to change the game provincially, allow Ford’s shambolic government less of a free ride and raise the political heat.
In Toronto, Mayor Olivia Chow has demonstrated a willingness to cut deals and get on with the huge challenges that confront her. But whatever honeymoon she enjoyed during her first months on the job is surely coming to an end and the premier’s uncharacteristic goodwill is likely not the stuff on which durable friendships are built.
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On a comparatively minor issue, Chow made an unforced error in orchestrating the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square as Sankofa Square. The move was widely seen as imposed from on high with little consultation. And if citizens across Ontario have a recurring complaint in recent years, that might be it.
Too often, they’ve been blindsided by the arbitrary announcement of policies couriered in from left field.
At Queen’s Park, Ford has made a practice of surprises unveiled without public input -- from the halving of Toronto city council during the 2018 municipal campaign, to the controversial spa proposal for Ontario Place, to the reinstating last year of King’s Counsel designations for lawyers, to the infamous reopening then reclosing of Greenbelt development.
If there’s one thing we would like to see in 2024 it is simple respect for citizens and for consultation, for taking the time necessary to get things right.
These are tense, divisive times. It will not help the tone and temper of Canadian politics that 2024 is an election year in the United States. We have seen over the last decade – and most dramatically during the convoy crisis here -- how the toxic soup of American politics spills over into Canada.
This year, the malignant ways and rising desperation of former president Donald Trump -- whose Christmas message to enemies was “rot in hell” -- will surely mean more of the same.
What’s needed are political leaders prepared to meet the moment with words and actions that seek to bring us together, not push us apart for their own political ends.
Muslim and Jewish communities in particular are feeling the isolation and pain of hatred. They could use our collective support and our commitment to stand up against antisemitism and Islamophobia when we see it.
These are trying times for too many in our community struggling with the high cost of housing and food. We should all respond with generosity in whatever ways we can through donations of time, money and understanding that none of us is immune to misfortune.
In his Christmas message, Trudeau properly urged Canadians to “find strength in our differences,” love our neighbours and give back to help those who have fallen on hard times.
The new year will require that.
It will require more and better of all players and all government levels, just as it will demand more engagement and greater goodwill from all Canadians.
