Societies have conversations with themselves. Sometimes these conversations are so noisy that everyone is forced to pay attention. In Canada, our noisiest conversations since World War Two have been Quebec sovereignty and the War Measures Act. Those two would have been hard to miss.
Sometimes, however, a conversation begins in one part of society without others (governments, mainstream media, the majority of the public) taking much notice. Frustrations can be repeated in a particular region or in a particular sector of the economy but be ignored or even dismissed elsewhere. These unheeded concerns eventually either fade away or force themselves onto the public agenda.
The election of Rob Ford in Toronto in 2010 was one instance. At a time when serious municipal leaders focused on issues such as smart...
Michael Adams is the president of the Environics group of companies, which he co-founded in 1970. He is the author of six books, most recently Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Canadian Pluralism (Penguin Canada (2008).
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