There is a question everywhere you go of what would make Canadians trust a politician. Particularly in areas where people are suffering from poverty and sickness, there is a real feeling of anger, mistrust and distaste for politicians and for the political process. Today, I went to downtown Vancouver, East Side to discuss the issues of poverty and homelessness in urban centres. As was predictable, the reception was not entirely friendly. I was personally very uncomfortable with the situation. For the first time in BC Green Party history, a huge media turnout of over 40 reporters joined us. It made the impact of our visit for people on the street disturbing. While I did my best to talk about the tragedy of poverty in this wealthy country, the fact that it is unacceptable and unconscionable that there should be homelessness in Canada, photographers scanned the street, taking pictures of men with injuries, women sleeping in doorways. I said to the media at the time, “What are we doing here? I’m a politician. You’re journalists. What business do we have to be down here?” I felt queasy watching the cameras capture human suffering and feeling the hostility from the passers-by on the road.
Several people approached our group, some of whom were interested in what I was doing. Some people expressed their support. But many people approached me and other members of the team to tell us we were not welcome. Many people reproached us for never coming to Hastings St. until an election was upon us and we could bring a gaggle of reporters and cameras. Many people raised their voices and said things like, “You’re just another politician!”, “Nobody helps us here” and “why should we trust you?”
The thing is that they have no reason to trust me. The best I can do is that I know we need change. I know their own MP, NDP member Libby Davies is as strong an advocate as they could have. When you get down to it, a lot of members of parliament work hard for their ridings and don’t always achieve great results. To really be able to take an area like downtown Vancouver and eliminate the poverty, the crime, the health problems and the addiction issues, there needs to be radical political action on the parts of municipal, provincial and federal governments. Politicians need to be willing to sacrifice some of the desires of the upper-middle classes to serve the people who have fallen through the cracks. Politics makes doing the right thing more complicated than it needs to be. One man walking along Hastings St. yelled out: “It’s not rocket science! Build more houses.” In a sense, it’s true that politicians over-complicate problems and solutions. Of course it makes sense to build more affordable housing… and there are groups, like the Carnegie Theatre construction project, who want to do this. Why can’t governments get behind projects like that?
All over Canada, politicians face the charges, “How can we trust you?” Politics has been failing for Canadians for years. There’s no way I can convince people to trust me. As far as they know, I’m here wearing my business suit, sending messages on my blackberry, just to get into office to do nothing for them. I’m not about to tell people that they should trust politicians. It’s unacceptable that our government has not been able to do better for Canadians. We must not become numb to the abuse of poverty. There shouldn’t be Canadians living in poverty, there shouldn’t be children going hungry here, there shouldn’t be homelessness or people who can’t afford to be healthy.
This is not to say that I am cynical. It is unreasonable to expect hope and political engagement from the people the system has ignored and left behind. Yet it is the moral obligation of those who have the power to change things to continue to work at it. We must hope for how else can we move forward in the spirit of helping each other and trying to better our society. Let’s not do politics the same old way, with attack ads, cynicism and increasingly formulated marketing strategies. Let’s talk about democracy, the phenomenal capacity for a country to turn itself around even at the darkest hour when the people have the power. In a democracy, the people have to take charge.