It must be something in the water.
Any Islander who has experienced tragedy and adversity in their lives, be it from fire, flood or other mishap, has experienced the outflow of hospitality and support coming from their friends, neighbours… and even some of those people they normally don’t get along with very well.
Perhaps it’s an island thing. The kind of empathy and support experienced by Manitoulin Islanders when faced by adversity is currently being experienced by Islanders visiting fire-ravaged Nova Scotia. But maybe these virtues extend beyond the shores of our island homes—maybe it’s actually a Canadian thing, or just the better nature of human beings coming to the fore in times of crisis.
Sadly, we see so much of the negative in this world of ours that it can tend to blind us to the vast amount of good taking place in the world around us.
The recent election in Alberta was something of a tight-run thing, despite the returning majority of the United Conservative Party in that province. The increasing polarization showing up in the polls and on the streets of Canada’s most prosperous province has been closely followed by academics during that election, and what they found might prove surprising to many, and hopefully provide a few bridges along the rocky road of divides.
Although electors in that province are staunchly entrenched in their respective tribes, in-depth polling by the boffins at the University of Alberta has uncovered remarkable similarities in both solitudes (read leftward leaning NDP and rightward tipped UPC). Those who identify as being in either camp hold far more similarities in outlook and personal “ideology” than one would expect to see at first blush.
What really divides the members who historically vote for the UPC or NDP is not what those parties stand for in policy or demeanor, the academics report. It isn’t so much of a right—left thing, as the bulk of both parties’ supporters self-identify as moderate centrist and share a very similar, if not identical, worldview. Yet nearly in lockstep, both exhibit something of a rabid antipathy towards those holding up the other banner (don’t let us even consider the traditional centrist party, the Liberals, echoes of the now ancient National Energy Policy have ingrained a pathological reversion to that label).
In essence, what divides us is what divides us. The labels we have historically attached to ourselves, whether UPC or NDP in Alberta’s case, appear to hold far more sway at the ballot box than either party’s actual election platform planks. This has an unfortunate side effect.
It has often been said in safe party ridings that “a chihuahua could get elected as a (place partisan affiliation here) in this riding.” Unfortunately, when the writ comes down, this leaves party candidates free to appeal to the fringes in the knowledge that their “base” will still be in place come the day after.
All of us, no matter where we identify on the political spectrum, would do well to consider the findings sighted from the heights of the ivory tower. We, all of us, have by far, much more in common than we have dividing us.
This is something that elected politicians at Queen’s Park and Ottawa’s Parliament have, by and large, long understood. Often striking up lifelong friendships, engaging in social interactions outside of the office or debate floor. As for the rough and tumble of Question Period or the hustings, well, as the late Michael K. Williams character on television’s The Wire Omar was wont to say, “it’s all in the game, brah.” Much of a positive nature has been accomplished behind the scenes by dedicated members of all parties, despite their adversarial stances under the glare of the media’s gaze. At the end of the day, whether left, right, centrist or an amalgam of all of the above, each serves constituents’ needs and in the solutions to those needs can often be found common ground.
As we head into what promises to be a somewhat challenging future, with changing climate-induced crisis, a world teetering on the brink of an unthinkable global conflict and a host of potential personal tragedies, let each of us try to step back from the madness of tribalism and seek to chart a common path, guided by our similarities and not our differences. Given what the Alberta studies have shown, it will be easier than you think.
