This article is the third in a four-part series on how conspiracy theories and theorists are impacting municipal governments.
Part 1: Conspiracists and democratic deficits collide in Alberta municipal governments
As the author of Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up and creative director of Unlock Democracy Canada, Dave Meslin has spent years trying to upend voter apathy and reinvigorate civic engagement.
On one hand, the upsurge of protest movements that have arisen since the pandemic, even those derided as being fringe groups, are doing exactly what he advocates: going to city hall, trying to make a difference, holding demonstrations. On the other, many of these movements are driven by “complete distortions of data and truth and really playing to people's fears,” Meslin said.
“And that is really unfortunate. If we taught civic literacy better in school in the first place, maybe people would be able to see through that.”
With issues like the campaigns against Pride crosswalks in Alberta, a challenge for administrations, or anyone concerned with local democracy, is to find ways to “turn these into opportunities for growth and learning.”
Meslin said if civics was taught in a way that was more experiential, “explaining that this is how we make decisions as a society; this is how we share power; this is how we shape the world around us,” Canadians would be more likely to want to participate in politics in meaningful ways, and better prepared to do so.
Voter turnout has been steadily declining in elections across the country, and the lowest levels of voter participation are at the municipal level. In Alberta’s 2021 municipal elections, about 37 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, but those statistics varied greatly from community to community.
While Westlock and Barrhead both had around 30 per cent of their population show up on election day, only 11 per cent of people in the County of Northern Lights voted. In many rural counties and villages, no votes were cast because not enough candidates came forward to hold an election and councillors were acclaimed instead.
This fact has been seized on by groups like Take Back Alberta, who see the opportunity to get like-minded members into seats on council for school boards to influence politics and public education.
“You always have opposition,” said Paul McLauchlin, reeve of Ponoka County and president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA). “But I'll tell you right now, it's gotten very, very toxic with this whole system around people trying to hijack school boards and municipalities.”
McLauchlin said in many cases there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is local governments or school boards are responsible for, and that people wanting to fight some global ideological battle would be disappointed to learn how narrow the lane is for local decision-makers.
“There are a lot of folks out there chasing windmills, thinking they're having a big battle. I think they're picking the wrong place to spend their energy.”
Meslin said that even if people are motivated by bad information, “they are at least engaging in the political system.”
“I think the main thing democracy is suffering from is not believing in it. People turning away from it,” he said.
“I think the most dangerous path that society can take is people turning away from the structures we have in place to make decisions, to shape the world, and to share power.”
He offered a caveat that while it is a positive sign that aggrieved people still look to make change through existing systems rather than in opposition to them, “when it comes to civil rights issues or actually spreading hatred, some of these groups have crossed the line.”
In Westlock, where town council's approval of a Pride crosswalk elicited protracted controversy and drew national media attention, it is worth noting that it also helped drive people to the polls. Voter turnout in the 2024 byelection was higher than the previous three elections.
Part 4 of our series on conspiracy theory and local government looks at how a municipality’s land use bylaw review led to an “emergency meeting”.
