Canadians more attached to their country than people of any other advanced democracy on Earth: survey (Toronto Star, Dec. 7, 2013)
A Dec. 7, 2013 Toronto Start article is entitled: “Canada: It really is our home and native land.”
The subhead reads: “Canadians are more attached to their country than the people of any other advanced democracy on Earth: survey.”
Although the headline doesn’t reflect this theme, the article also refers to research suggesting that “the bonds that hold Canadians together are unravelling, leaving a nation profoundly polarized along fault-lines of age, education and the workplace.”
Disconnection from formal participation
According to the article:
“Young, highly educated and progressive ‘next Canada’ is disconnecting itself from formal participation in Canada’s democracy. The percentage that voted in the 2011 federal election was under 40 per cent and [EKOS president Frank] Graves predicts it may well slip into the teens by the next election or two.”
Political disengagement
A Dec. 8, 2013 Toronto Start article, one of a series based on survey research, is entitled: “The young will inherit a future they didn’t choose.”
The subhead reads:
- The politically disengaged Spectators — about 25 per cent of the population — see mainstream Canadian life as a sham.
The article notes:
- Mass media, built on the assumption of shared values and aspirations in society, don’t reach them.
- Civic engagement, which assumes that people working together can change society for the better, doesn’t attract them.
Poverty and inclusion
The above-noted articles resonate with related topics of interest:
A Dec. 6, 2013 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Rob Ford scandal: Why aren’t Toronto elites in the street?”
The latter article refers to a Dec. 4, 2013 Esquire Magazine article by a Canadian writer entitled: “The day the Rob Ford story stopped being funny.”
A Dec. 7, 2013 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Rob Ford: Low-income supporters stand by their mayor.”
The subhead reads:
- Mayor Rob Ford’s support among low-income people is a paradox to critics who say he has consistently voted against programs that would help the poor. But his supporters in Rexdale social housing complexes say they support him because he’s active in the community.
Drugs, poverty, and power
A related theme concerns the legacy of the concept that drug use is a suitable setting for engagement in wars on drugs.
Blurbs define us and tell us who they are
A study of blurbs and how they work is of relevance with regard to media articles, academic studies, and public opinion surveys describing the nature of contemporary society.
Colleen O’Marra writes:
Toronto is no gated community just yet but The Star writers have
certainly fanned the flames of stereotyping citizens(we’re not related
to the Fords after all) and regions outside the city core.I would
suspect that writer Laura Kane herself would be considered
low-income(I’m sure The Star doesn’t pay its writers that well.)
considering a contrast made between the Sunshine Club and those poor
dolts making less than $100,000.00.Most Ford voters, I suspect, know
that Mayor Ford must go but these infuriating, daily assaults on the
‘great unwashed’ will not stop when Ford hopefully goes home.( Colleen
M. O’Marra)P.S. Of the few young people I met at our local polling
station some years ago, I gathered that the real reason this
generation doesn’t vote is merely a question of this amazing digital
age. On-line voting must be used in any future elections.
From my perspective, it’s of interest to know who votes for Rob Ford, in the past and in the future. That’s a matter of demographics, branding, political dynamics, and political messaging. It’s a legitimate subject for study, in my view.
The underlying story does not ultimately involve Ford, except to the extent that he serves to channel and represent particular ways of seeing and acting on a political stage.
The underlying story, whatever it may be, has been in place before Ford came along and will continue, in one variation or another, after he has left the scene.