WHERE DO YOU START?
Taking the First Step

How do you get over that initial feeling of inertia and start to take action? One way is to start local, on an issue you live with every day, and build your confidence and experience from there. The story of Elinor Caplan is a great example. As a mother of four, Elinor noticed that the kids in her neighbourhood had to navigate a dangerous, unmarked crossing on their way to school. She began her career by pushing for a crosswalk at that perilous intersection. After gathering community support and making the case to municipal officials, she felt the satisfaction of seeing the installation of a new crosswalk. The crosswalk success gave her the confidence to run for municipal council, then provincially in Ontario as an M.P.P., (after which she was made minister of Health) and finally federally as an M.P., being rewarded with the role of minister of Citizenship and Immigration and then minister of National Revenue. Whether it is student politics, community decisions, or a fight within any institution, a good place to start is in your own backyard.

BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO?
One of the most powerful things citizens can do is reframe public policy questions from an alternative perspective. To “frame” an issue means choosing the language to define a political debate and fitting individual issues into a publicly understandable story.

As a citizen or organization working outside of government, you can play a part in reframing the debate on the issues you care about. How you pose a question largely determines its answer. Whether the question refers to security, the environment, trade, health care, or foreign policy, the language you use directly affects the options presented for consideration and the ultimate policy decisions taken by the government.

Of course, activism is not just about language. It’s about ideas. There have to be substantial ideas based on sound research and thorough analysis before language becomes your main concern. Although government departments are the central locale for developing and evaluating policy options for the government to consider, citizens can also help develop the solutions to the problems that affect them directly. Regardless of your political persuasion, it is important to continually challenge established ideas and frames so that decision-makers have real options from which to choose.

But if you have only limited time and resources, how can activism possibly be worthwhile? Even if you have one hour per week to put in, that one hour per week can lead to a rich sense of satisfaction. A good meeting with the right official or an event that sparks public interest at the right time can make an invaluable contribution.
Naturally, overhauling government policy on broader and far-reaching issues will require more time. However, as long as your definition of success correlates to what you are able to devote to an issue, you will find that participating and effecting change will add to your life, to your sense of self-fulfilment, and, most importantly, to the broader community in which you live.

Clearly, working alone is not going to be most effective. Behind even the most charismatic activist is a rich network of community organizations supporting their efforts to achieve social change. Individuals may spearhead an idea, but it takes steady community support and participation for a project to go from the idea stage to fruition.

Government is not the monolithic, impenetrable fortress it appears to be. Like most large organizations or companies, it is made up of individuals, each playing a part in shaping the overall actions and decisions their institution takes. In Canada, organizing even on a small scale can have a big impact. If you follow one particular issue, you will soon find that after a short while, you will be familiar with the key organizations and individuals that have been active on the topic for years. The amazing thing from a policy perspective is that it is possible to gather a somewhat comprehensive picture of who the key activists are from different sides of the issue and where they are coming from. Although this will certainly not cover everyone in the country who has an opinion on the topic, you can get a good grasp of the landscape and be well informed on the various points of view.

The size of this country also gives us an opportunity to demand that our politicians truly be representative. It never ceased to amaze me that in Canada, if you are well prepared and understand how the government works, you can actually sit down with a minister and tell them what you think. Elected officials, whether they are a backbench M.P., a member of the Opposition, or a minister, will listen when confronted by even a small group of well-informed constituents. They know they have to if they are to continue to represent that constituency to government.