For democracy, we have to make public life appealing again

Despite our county’s many strengths, our politics suffer from some formidable challenges. The national discourse has become more polarized, divisive, and nastier. Unfortunately, we aren’t alone. Democracies across the globe face similar, even more ominous predicaments.

Anti-government protesters stand outside the West Block and on Wellington Street on the House's first day back on Sept. 15, 2025. A 2022 Angus Reid poll found that almost 60 per cent of Canadians did not trust their government, that's up from 47 per cent registered five years earlier, writes Sergio Marchi.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Feature

BY SERGIO MARCHI

September 29, 2025

The following is an excerpt from Pursuing a Public Life, by Sergio Marchi, and published next month by Dundurn Press.

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