Methinks we don’t protest too much

Work in Progress By Ivan Morgan

Fishers and the French: What could they possibly have in common?

For those of you who don’t know, the French were rioting in the streets last week over their government’s proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. To top it off, they plan to do it without putting it to a vote in their assembly. The population is taking a dim view. Totally not cool. Reports say a million people will hit the streets making their displeasure known to the powers that be. That’s what the French do.

Here in Newfoundland crab harvesters are protesting a decision by DFO to cut into their livelihood. Smaller quotas mean financial hardship and they came to St. John’s to let politicians – federal and provincial – know they aren’t happy. There was lots of yelling and bravado. That’s what harvesters do.

However, protests are not something most of us do.

We don’t have a protest culture here. Harvesters do, but not the mainstream population. It takes a lot to get people into the streets. Back in 2016 the Liberal government decided to charge us all $500 a head, the deficit reduction levy – a “cover charge” some wag called it – in our taxes. They brought down a hard budget which they said was in response to hard financial times. That did it. People were pissed. Several thousand gathered in front of the Confederation Building on a warm spring Saturday morning to voice their ire over that budget. Message received. Several weeks later government scaled back the levy.

In 2018, thousands of young people marched on the Confederation Building demanding government act on addressing climate change. Backroom political people viewed it as a lark by a bunch of kids pipping off from a regular school day. No message received.

There is a small protest culture in St. John’s. Many years ago, I was in the Premier’s eighth floor office interviewing him about something (I don’t remember what) when his comms director noticed protesters on the steps of the Confederation Building. We both peered down. It was a cold grey afternoon, and you could here someone yelling into a bullhorn. 

The premier was in a philosophical mood. Someone was sent to see what the issue was. Watching them way below, he turned to me and said, “Why is it always the same 50 people protesting? You ever notice that? Same crowd every time. I bet you know half of them.” I peered down. I knew many of them.

There is a small, noisy left-wing culture in St. John’s that shows up to protests regularly. Protesting human rights issues is in their culture. They have been referred to, perhaps uncharitably, as cranky old hippies. They refer to themselves, admiringly, as activists.

You will often see them in the news yelling and chanting about the cause of the day. They believe in and exercise our precious rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association. Maybe we need to learn from them.

But they are surrounded by vast suburbs stretching out to Holyrood and beyond where tens of thousands of people quietly live their lives and don’t get involved. They are very slow to rile. They will bitch and gripe but rarely actually do anything about an issue. Soaring grocery prices? Skyrocketing electricity rates? Horrendous provincial debt? Poor health care? They will grumble, but attend a protest? Nope. Nothing gets them involved.

Governments know this and are careful to never say or do anything that might rile these people. Handfuls of harvesters, union activists, other assorted interest groups will bawl at them from time to time, but the government of the day pays no mind.

They know what not to do, which is why they get elected. They couch things in bureaucratic terms, inoffensive language, calming optimism. If you are hurting financially, they will cut you a cheque of your own money. They will make it look like they are making bold moves to fix a problem that occurred on their watch (think health care).

They know the rule: Whatever you do, don’t ever rile the middle class.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com