A DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT IS THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY ... (FOR) ACTUALLY ENRICHING LIVES.

Speaking of embarrassments, consider the painful and divisive kerfuffle over Liberal MP Iqra Khalid’s private member’s motion M-103. M-103 is essentially a toothless symbolic statement condemning “Islamophobia,” racism, and religious discrimination. Angry populists expended a great deal of energy and verbiage vehemently denouncing the thing as a curtailment of free expression — or vehemently denouncing the denouncers as racists; it all depends on whose version of “ordinary people” you use to define a populist. The point is, neither group was expressing any sort of genuine “distrust of government”; rather they were battling bitterly over shallow figurative expressions of philosophy and morality. (Those who truly distrust government were just happy to have politicians distracted by a non-binding motion rather than doing real damage by passing actual bills.)

But there’s another way to look at it.

Ironically, the ideological left in the United States and the ideological right in Canada are both currently paying the price for not distrusting government enough. Have you noticed the vitriol and disgust with which the former group speaks of Trump and the latter group speaks of Trudeau? The conviction that the respective leaders are destroying their respective countries? (Incidentally, I wonder if Trump is making the left rethink all the insulting superlatives it used to describe George W. Bush, leaving nowhere further to go with its rhetoric when circumstances demand it.) The panic and catastrophizing come from the knowledge that the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada, along with their governments, really do have the legal power to bulldoze civil liberties and/or bankrupt their nations. Which suddenly seems a lot scarier when you’re literally scared of the person running the show.

So I say to the 43 per cent of Canadians who don’t trust their government: good. And now I would like to ask them to view all laws and all proposed new laws through that very same cynical lens: that is, pretend that (insert your worst political nightmare here) is in charge and then see if you’re still comfortable with the actions they are empowered to take. If you aren’t, the real problem is with the law, not the nightmare.

I’m tired of being told by moralizing op-eds that a distrust of government is ruining our civic institutions when in fact a distrust of government is the perfect opportunity to channel money, time and good faith away from politics and towards voluntary institutions better suited to actually enriching lives — the charities, the churches, the synagogues, the mosques, the universities, the libraries, the museums, etc.

Distrust of government didn’t put Trump in power and it won’t ruin Canada. But sacrificing freedom and respectful discourse to assuage the masses just might.