Canadians give more of their time to the non-profit sector than to organized politics.

While only 10 per cent have volunteered on a political campaign in the last five years, 55 per cent report having volunteered for a non-profit in the past year. An even larger proportion, about 58 per cent, report being involved with a non-profit community group.

Due to several troubling indicators of the health of Canadian democracy, my non-profit group Samara developed the Democracy Talks program to understand Canadians’ experiences with politics and the barriers they face to political participation.

A number of Democracy Talks participants explained that the social aspect and participatory nature of working with community groups makes them much more inviting than political offices or parties. In contrast to the frustration or power imbalance they’ve felt with political organizations, they feel welcomed and encouraged by community groups to make a difference on their chosen issue.

According to the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer the non-profit sector is the most trusted sector in Canada, with 73 per cent of people saying they put some level of trust in non-profits. Only 58 per cent felt the same way about government. Given the confidence non-profit community groups enjoy, and the fact that many are formed around issues that are inherently political (such as neighbourhood safety, the environment or international development), non-profit community groups are well-positioned to help their members engage in political issues. [view:in_this_series=block_1]

By bringing discussions about politics into their programming, community groups can normalize such discussions for their members and reinforce the idea that political participation is socially acceptable and desirable. As community groups continue to provide these opportunities, the members who take part become more likely to translate their discussions into political engagement.

A recent American study clearly shows the impact that the non-profit sector can have on citizen engagement — in this specific case, on voter turnout.

In the 2012 general election in the U.S., the group Non-Profit Vote studied voter registration and found that turnout for those who had been registered by a non-profit was significantly higher than turnout in the general population — 74 per cent vs. 68 per cent. The group also found that because of non-profits’ reach and roots within communities, they were particularly good at mobilizing segments of the community who are usually underrepresented in politics.

It is well known that personally asking someone to vote is the most effective way to influence them to do so. However, because underrepresented groups are often seen as having a low propensity to vote, political parties tend to ignore them when registering voters. Non-Profit Vote’s study shows that non-profit community groups can effectively step in to fill this pivotal role.

Citizens Engaged With Non-Profits More Likely to Vote

Through Democracy Talks, we met two individuals whose experiences capture the impact that community groups can have on democratic engagement.

Uzma Irfan is a Pakistani-Canadian who has lived in Malton, Ontario, for 14 years. Today, she is a leader in her community and works with local city councillors and MPPs on a wide variety of initiatives. Yet she told us that only one year ago she felt “hesitant to talk to political leaders [due to] a lack of confidence.” Her turning point came when she joined a local group called the Malton Women Council. The council provided her with training, and trusted her with opportunities to represent their needs in high-level meetings with her political representatives. Now she says she can “talk to politicians easily.”

James Wattam had a similar experience. He joined an Engineers Without Borders campus group at his university in Saskatchewan, where he received specialized training in interacting with MPs. He says the training made him “more comfortable with raising [his] voice.” James now serves as the campus group’s vice president of advocacy, regularly meeting with MPs throughout the province and pushing forward Engineers Without Border’s international development goals.

Through their non-profit community groups, both Uzma and James learned the skills needed to engage with organized politics. Further, in both cases the non-profit group has provided them a platform from which to constructively contribute to public policy development. Their experiences illustrate an important pattern noted in Samara’s public polling: 73 per cent of those who report having been active in a non-profit group in the past 12 months also report that they voted in the last election. By contrast, just 62 per cent who had not been active with a group said they voted.

One Conversation at a Time

To be in the room during a Democracy Talk is to witness the impact that one conversation can have.

The comfortable spaces that community groups provide combined with a deep knowledge of issues that interest their members allows them to create empowering opportunities for those who might otherwise be frustrated, intimidated or hesitant to get involved.

Most research on the role of community groups in increasing political engagement has been done in an American context, while attention in Canada has largely focused on increasing voter turnout. The fact that turnout levels remain low indicates, however, that traditional approaches to mobilizing voters are not working as well as we might hope.

It is for this reason that Democracy Talks works with non-profit community groups on political education and mobilization between elections, starting with something as simple as an invitation to talk about politics.

In the coming years, Samara will work closely with community partners, settlement agencies, ESL teachers and campus groups to continue to facilitate conversations that open up the world of politics to Canadians who are too often left out of political discussions.

The proportion of the Canadian public engaging in public policy and politics over the past 30 years has been on the decline. By tackling the roots of citizens’ disengagement by connecting with citizens through non-profit groups, hopefully it won’t take another 30 years to turn things around. 

Alison Loat is the executive director and co-founder of Samara, a charitable organization dedicated to increasing political participation in Canada. Find out more about Democracy Talks online or contact John Beebe at john.beebe@samaracanada.com.

This article originally appeared in The Philanthropist.

Image Credit: Zack Embree

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A new campaign for transparency is pushing British Columbia to become the first province to require mining, oil and gas companies to reveal what they pay to domestic and foreign governments. The initiative, led by Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada and Publish What You Pay (PWYP), a group that campaigns for full disclosure from the Canadian government, asks Canadians to send a postcard, reading “Information is Power,” to B.C. Finance Minister Michael De Jong.

The groups hope to hand-deliver more than 500 postcards to the Minister on May 1^st.

“When citizens can follow the money generated by the natural resources their country supplies to the world, they can ensure their government is using these revenues to improve their communities, rather than lining the pockets of people in power,” the groups state on the campaign’s website.

The TRACE campaign, or TRancesparent & ACcountable Extractives, advocates for accountability in the global extractive industry, starting with B.C.

“The TRACE Campaign is currently focused on increasing transparency, by making it mandatory for extractive companies registered in Canada to disclose all payments they make to governments, at home and abroad,” the groups write.

These TRACE campaign postcards with the message "information is power" will be hand-delivered to Minister De Jong.

“B.C. can help make this happen by requiring the 1200+ mining companies registered in the province to publish what they pay to governments in Canada and around the world.”

Samantha Burton, advocacy manager with EWB, argues “it’s impossible to talk about the global mining industry without taking about Canada,” in a recent op-ed.

“With 60 per cent of the world’s publicly traded mining companies listed in this country, 70 per cent of international mining equity raised on Toronto stock exchanges and a presence in more than 100 countries, the importance of Canada’s role in global mining in unparalleled.”

Canada is slowly moving towards more transparent disclosure guidelines for the extractive industries, with new transparency regulations – that require companies to disclose all payments to governments over $100,000 – to be enacted in April of 2015.

The TRACE campaign looks to put mining profits and decision-making power back into the hands of the country’s citizens by requiring full disclosure of financial payments.

“In many countries rich in natural resources – like oil and gold – the majority of citizens remain in poverty. Mining, oil or gas operations in their country generate billions of dollars of revenue, which should be used to improve people’s lives and livelihoods,” the groups write. “But too often, this doesn’t happen.”

According to EWB development profits are all too often “lost to corruption and mismanagement.” And a lack of public transparency, they argue, “breeds mistrust and conflict.”

EWB reports most citizens of resource-rich countries are unaware that there are more than 1100 companies extracting resources in their country at a given time. Citizens often don’t know what is being extracted, how much is being collected in the industrial or government sectors, or where the profit goes.

“Without this knowledge, it is very difficult for communities to ensure they receive full social benefits (such as investment in healthcare, education systems, infrastructure) from the extraction of their natural resources.”

With the help of this campaign, EWB hopes to push B.C. and Canada take the initiative to create a more accountable extractive sector.

“Canada is demonstrating real commitment to improving extractive sector transparency,” says Burton, “but global leadership does not come from a single policy. Canada became an international force in the mining business by demonstrating consistent, proactive leadership across the sector.”

“It’s time for our government to become a global leader in responsible mining practices by doing the same.”

Image Credit: Photo from Pricewaterhouse Coopers report Staying the Course.

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