At a time when we have an unnecessary provincial election and when there are polarizing forces all around, it is hardly surprising that many people feel that our democratic system is under threat and that we need to consider how to improve it.
Dr. Trevor Hancock
11 October 2026
701 words
In 1947 Winston Churchill famously remarked “democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”. He was also clear that “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise”, meaning it could be improved.
At a time when we have an unnecessary provincial election, when municipal elections are ignored by two-thirds of the electorate, when we see the craziness south of the border, when social media and AI are disruptive and sometimes polarising forces, it is hardly surprising that many people feel that our democratic system is under threat, that we need to consider how democracy could be improved.
But are we even clear what democracy is? The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives”. But that is a somewhat narrow, electorally-based vision; show up once every four years and vote, and you are done.
A broader vision of democracy would be that it should try to involve as many people as possible in the choices and decisions that shape their lives. People Powered, a global hub for participatory democracy, defines it as a process that “enables community members to make the decisions that affect their lives, together with government.”
Note, ‘together with government’ – not by government, on your behalf. This is the process of governance, how we make decisions together, which can occur at all levels from streets to the whole society and involves all the players, of which government is but one.
So it is noteworthy that just this past couple of weeks I have attended two local meetings focused on the challenge of improving democracy and governance. The first, launching an initiative called ‘Turning Down the Heat’, was focused on deliberative democracy. It asked ‘how do we turn down the heat and create conditions for more respectful, thoughtful, and productive public conversations?’
Organised by the External Affairs Committee of the Baha’is of Victoria, with the support of the Greater Victoria Peace School and the Victoria Multifaith Society, the meeting brought together a group of 20 or so local leaders from various walks of life to discuss the issue. You can learn more at the initiative’s website.
The second was a public meeting organised by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) Victoria Regional Group on ‘Citizens’ Assemblies & Democratic Renewal’, which explored how this approach could navigate contested policy questions and rebuild public trust.
In my view, a system designed largely in the 18th and 19th centuries and brought to maturity in the 20th century is no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century. Nobody back then anticipated the ways in which our present political system and associated media system would create fragmentation, polarisation and alienation.
If every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results it gets, as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement puts it, then clearly we need to change the system. What does a system look like that delivers cohesion, collaboration and engagement?
I spent much of the 1980s and ‘90s working to create healthier communities across Canada and around the world. One of the lessons I learned can be applied to democracy: a healthy community (or, in this case, democracy) is built one home at a time, one street at a time, one block at a time and one neighbourhood at a time. So we need to start there. How do we engage people in conversations locally about their immediate concerns and how do we link that to local governance?
Implicit in this approach is the principle of subsidiarity, which begins with an assumption that every decision should be made at a block or neighbourhood level (e.g. removing fences from backyards), then decides what cannot be decided there (e.g. a regional transportation system, although some aspects might still be decided at a neighbourhood level, such as the best location for a bike rental station).
Following the municipal elections, I suggest we need to start a process of conversations in neighbourhoods throughout the region about what a participatory, deliberative democracy looks like at that local level, and how to get there.
© Trevor Hancock, 2026
Dr. Trevor Hancock is a retired professor and senior scholar at the
University of Victoria’s School of Public Health and Social Policy
