With the war on truth raging across the American political landscape and with 300 Republican 2020 election deniers running for office at various levels of government, it is refreshing to see that five of Canada’s leading universities have found it necessary to jointly create The Jarislowsky Foundation.
The network of five newly endowed chairs at universities across the country will focus on training tomorrow’s leaders in the responsibilities of government, politics and the public service.
The president of the Jarislowsky Foundation, Stephen A. Jarislowsky, a 91原创 business magnate, investor and philanthropist, says the creation of the new chairs responds to an obvious need in democratic societies.
The purpose of the foundation, says Jarislowsky “is to strengthen and build trust in our public institutions, our organizations and ourselves.”
Its central concern is the well-documented public loss of faith in governments and institutions that were once held, like the proverbial Caesar’s wife, to be beyond reproach.
Given the parallel emergence of “generation Z” (so named by the Pew Research Centre) as a political force in Canada, a move to restore some level of faith in the integrity of public institutions and political leadership is timely, if not overdue.
Researchers and popular media use the term generation Z to describe those born from the mid-to-late 1990s to the early 2010s. They are regarded as the first generation of “digital natives” for whom diversity is the norm.
Generation Z, according to sociologists, are both politically pragmatic and philosophically progressive on both sides of the political spectrum. They are also a potential political influence. In the 2021 census, of almost 24 million people, 17.6% were Gen Z’ers.
Generation Z’s faith in current political institutions is on shaky ground, though. Its members could be forgiven a degree of scepticism about politics and the integrity of politicians when they observe an aspiring national leader appearing in news broadcasts marching alongside James Topp, an avowed anti-vaxxer and associate of far-right figurehead Jeremy MacKenzie, who claimed that the “Freedom Convoy” could “bring down the government.”
Gen Z also watched incredulously as, despite Canada’s 4.33 million COVID cases and 45, 941 deaths from the virus, the new premier of Alberta describe those who deny fact, science and social responsibility by refusing to vaccinate as “the most discriminated against group.”
In terms of election turnout, the good news is that by 2019, the 18-24-age-group turnout had risen to 68% from 55% in 2011, according to Elections Canada. Generation Z is already making its voice heard.
The same survey showed that while older 91原创s, who have had more experience with the political system and public services, still turn out in higher numbers, those age 18-22 who did vote in the 2019 election displayed significantly higher levels of both knowledge and skepticism about campaign promises and political institutions.
The same survey in 2019 revealed differences in preferred news sources between the age groups. Those in the 16-34 age range consumed news from a variety of sources, while the youngest of the Gen Zers (age 16 to 17) are much less likely to use print media in their media diets.
Again, according to Elections Canada, young 91原创s follow the news on social networks and web apps more than older 91原创s do and have as much trust in social media as in professional journalism. The downside of this is that Generation Z is most at risk of consuming and believing fake news and unverified information, which is more prevalent on the web than in print media.
Given all this, and given the doubts that generation Z kids already have about the institutions on which Canada’s democracy is founded, what role is it likely that public education should or could play in educating young 91原创s about their responsibilities in a democracy?
A 2019 study for the 91原创 Political Science Association by Valerie-Anne Mahéo — “Get Out the Children’s Vote” — emphasized that while families play an important part in youths’ socialization to politics, schools also represent another important socialization agent in children’s and adolescents’ lives.
While the efficacy of civic education courses and programs has been debated, more recent studies have found that programs offered in schools boost children’s and eventually adults’ political knowledge and engagement.
Public education may, after all, be the critical vaccine that will, for Generation Z and future generations, keep 91原创 politics inoculated from the threat of the same divisive and pernicious partisan virus seemingly taking a lethal hold on politics south of our border.
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
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