This book is about why American democracy is eroding and how Canada can ensure that this doesn't happen to us. It is a daring yet very honest book, one that will make you want to read and re-read it.
As a congressional staffer in the United States, Rob Goodman watched firsthand as a rising authoritarian movement disenfranchised voters, sabotaged institutions, and brought America to the brink of a coup.
Now, as a political theorist who makes his home in Canada, he has an urgent warning for his adopted country: The same forces that have upended democracy in Aerica and around the world are on the move in Caada, too. But we can protect our democracy by drawing on a set of political, cultural, and historical resources that are distinctively in this place.
In this book, Goodman outlines four such resources. First, the rejection of the dangerous idea of one "real" Canadian people. Second, the refusal of political charisma and founder-worship. Third, a set of social programs – embattled but still standing – that empower neighbors to see one another as equals. And fourth, Canada's longstanding search for an identity separate from the great power with which it shares a continent.
Today, that great power is a democracy in decline. Therefore, defining what makes Canada distinct matters now more than ever. Canadian difference is not a curiosity, a luxury god, or a vanity item. It is a democratic immune system.
This book lays bare the historical roots of today's politics and makes an urgent case for action. This book is a road map for safeguarding a democracy under unprecedent threat.
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