Dignity, Democracy, Development

Tom Urbaniak

• Publisher: Breton Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781926908519
• eBook ISBN: 9781926908540
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Essays in Politics & International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

With these 61 readable essays, Cape Breton's Tom Urbaniak brings a courageous, critical and constructive eye to problems of our time. Whether it's revitalizing struggling communities, harnessing the power of small investors, reforming tired institutions or protecting parliamentary democracy, he is able to point to workable solutions. In this practical and thought-provoking reader, Prof. Urbaniak challenges students and citizens to engage with their region and with the world. He invites us all to be learners and active participants in our communities, contributing our wisdom and creativity for the common good.

Dignity,
Democracy,
Development

A Citizen’s Reader

Tom Urbaniak

Breton Books

Dignity, Democracy, Development © 2018 Tom Urbaniak

Editor: Ronald Caplan

Production Assistance: Bonnie Thompson

Layout: Fader Communications

Front Cover Painting: “Walmart” by Donald Roach. Back Cover Painting: “Handsleigh” by Christopher Gorey. Paintings published with the generous permission of the artists.

Acknowledgements: With thanks for their encouragement, the author acknowledges Carl Fleming, Managing Editor, Cape Breton Post, and Saltwire Media for permission to reprint his columns here. And thanks as well to Ronald Caplan and his co-worker Bonnie Thompson of Breton Books.

The Tompkins Institute Series

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Urbaniak, Tom, 1976-, author

Dignity, democracy, development : a citizen’s reader / Tom Urbaniak.

-- First edition.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-926908-51-9 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-926908-54-0 (ebook)

1. Social action. 2. Social action--Nova Scotia--Cape Breton Island.

3. Social participation. 4. Social participation--Nova Scotia--Cape Breton

Island. 5. Political participation. 6. Political participation--Nova Scotia--

Cape Breton Island. 7. Social justice. 8. Social justice--Nova Scotia--

Cape Breton Island. 9. Social policy. 10. Cape Breton Island (N.S.)--

Social policy. I. Title.

HN18.3.U73 2017 361.2 C2017-907492-X C2017-907493-8

Printed in Canada

Contents

Title Page: Dignity, Democracy, Development

Copyright: Dignity, Democracy, Development © 2018 Tom Urbaniak

PREFACE Be the Change You Want to See

1 Economic Development: Beware of “The Big Move”

2 Does Curitiba Have a Lesson for Cape Breton?

3 The Quiet Heroes of Ukraine’s Presidential Election

4 Moses Coady Still Has Something to Say

5 National Historic Designation a Boost for Whitney Pier

6 Dignity and Development for Struggling Communities

7 Lessons from Jan Karski’s Mission for Humanity

8 Breaking Out of the Halifax Bubble

9 Old Buildings Generate New Ideas

10 Retailers’ Black Friday Calls for Soul-Searching

11 For the Love of Libraries

12 Real Change Takes More Than Bursts of Protest

13 Badly Run Meetings

14 Cape Breton Should Have a Community Foundation

15 CBRM Needs a New Name

16 Nova Scotia Government Jumped the Gun

17 Give Local Voting Rights to Permanent Residents

18 Cape Breton as a “Region of Refuge”

19 Languages Are Part of Community Healing and Development

20 Memo to the New MLAs: Be a Trustee

21 The Political Power of Walking

22 Ballot Box Question: Canadian Democracy

23 Harper Misrepresents the Constitution

24 Why This Election Matters

25 The Five P’s of Great and Good Leadership

26 Rethinking Santa’s Government

27 Provincial Roads in Cape Breton Are Too Dangerous

28 Costly, Overcrowded, Dehumanizing Prisons Doing Harm

29 Beware of Boondoggles

30 An SOS for Our Local Non-Profit Boards

31 Project-Based Recruitment: The New Reality of Volunteering

32 Social Media Can Be a Double-Edged Sword

33 Nova Scotia Needs a Modern Municipal Government Act

34 Gabarus: A Can-Do Community that Gets Results

35 Weariness and Hope in Sydney Mines

36 Learning from the “People’s Universities”

37 August Civic Holiday Should Be “Cape Breton Day”

38 The Intriguing Revival of the Magdalen Islands

39 Preparing for CBRM’s Big Mayoral Debate

40 Could This Become CBRM’s Best Council?

41 “Who knows that it was like that?”

42 Company Houses, Company Towns Have Great Heritage Value

43 University Governance 101

44 One-Way Traffic Is a Dead End for Downtown Sydney

45 Will Truth Prevail Over Lies in Today’s World?

46 The Art of Quitting

47 The Power of Small Investors—Like Us

48 Reconvene the Nova Scotia Electoral Boundaries Commission

49 Can Political Science Help a Troubled Church?

50 We Should Have a Leaders’ Debate in Cape Breton

51 A Plea for Better Politics

52 Cape Breton’s Balance of Power

53 Confederation, Moderation and Celebration

54 Next Steps (Walking Steps) for Whitney Pier

55 The Hypocrisy of Silence

56 CBRM Has a Crosswalk Problem

57 Improving Cape Breton’s Recruitment Strategy

58 Is It Time for a New License-Plate Slogan?

59 For the Love of Listening

60 Meeting as a Study Club: Rising to the Occasion

61 Loneliness and Isolation Require Our Attention

POSTSCRIPT: A Letter to My Students

PREFACE

Be the Change You Want to See

Locally and globally, faith in leaders is gone. Big institutions—not just political institutions—have lost their moral standing.

The public and private sectors seem incapable of tackling more and more complex social and environmental issues. Around the world, nasty conflicts point to no new world order.

Even in peaceful Cape Breton, we shake our heads at failed development schemes and persistent poverty, cronyism and old-style politics. Most Cape Bretoners are caring and creative, but many attest to being blocked by cynical seat-warmers. The result is collective weariness.

A few leaders, however, seem to pierce the clouds. They are “servant-leaders” who have disciplined themselves to personify the change they want to see. They show us self-denying dedication. They are part of our hope for the future.

James MacGregor Burns’ death in 2014 was mentioned briefly in the popular press, but in the political science world he cast a bigger shadow. Burns wrote about leadership in the broad sense. By contrast, most political scientists actually prefer to study things that are tangible and quantifiable like elections, regulations and budgets.

Burns distinguished between “leadership” and “power-wielding.” Leadership is less about making decisions and more about helping fellow citizens focus on real problems. It’s about bringing out the best in people and taking some collective action for the common good. Leadership has a moral dimension.

Most leaders, even good leaders, are just “transactional,” Burns argued. They deal with a particular problem. They resolve a complaint. They react to requests.

But a few leaders are “transformative....

Table of contents

• Dignity,Democracy,Development