We’ve written previously about the ideas in Dave Meslin’s book, Teardown, including here and here.
Teardown is a set of proposals for “rebuilding democracy from the ground up”. Meslin argues that people are not apathetic about politics. Rather, the system is rigged against people getting involved in a meaningful way. Our politics have too often become a case of intentional exclusion.
Our own observation is that far too often, people try to get engage with (local) government, feel unheard and rejected, and simply give up and don’t come back.
It’s not that people are apathetic. It’s that the system is rigged against meaningful engagement.
Teardown has about 100 ideas — some big, some small — for restoring engagement in our democratic processes. Not once every 4 years at voting time, but whenever people care enough to get involved in improving their community.
Everything from how we vote (shifting from first past the post to ranked ballots) to how we help local community groups flourish (such as making City Hall meeting rooms available for the public to use after hours).
Dave Meslin is coming to Ottawa to screen the first and second episodes of a new TVO documentary, Unrigged, based on the ideas in Teardown. The second episode was partly filmed in Ottawa at a city building event in 2023.
The screening takes place on Thursday, October 17 at 5:30pm at Ben Franklin Place. (That’s the City of Ottawa facility in Nepean at 101 Centrepointe Drive.)
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the author.
Tickets here. A few complimentary community sponsored tickets remain.
We are both planning to be there. Hope you can be there also.
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