The Commons Edmonton:
On Civil Society and Democracy
Host Rod Olstad, occasional co-hosts and guests explore Civil Society and related issues, challenges, and solutions.
Rod is a fan of Civil Society because it is such a broad and inclusive term. It includes non-governmental organizations (NGOs), groups and institutions that develop, express and promote the will of the people. “Civil Society” is also contained within what makes democracy both possible and successful, such as a free and open press, pluralism, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a fair electoral system, a fair unbiased judicial system, and those who produce and share reliable, scientifically based facts, figures and opinion. Civil Society also describes engaged citizens, both as individuals and as part of groups or NGOs. It can also reference an economic system that truly serves the needs and aspirations of its members.
Effective Civil Society presents opportunities for citizens to build trust, to discuss and to explore ways to make a better world. It is, by definition, virtuous and well intentioned, with the emphasis on “civil”, respectful interactions. If it ain’t “civil”, it ain’t “civil society”. In this sense, it is a remedy to the polarizing political and cultural interactions that currently plague our societies.
Water Over Gravel: Impacts of Aggregate Strip Mining in the Sturgeon River Watershed. Host Rod Olstad talks with Mike Northcott and Ian Skinner, volunteer co-founders of the Onoway River Valley Conservation Association about significant environmental impacts of aggregate strip mining and insufficient regulatory scrutiny conceivably explained by the notion of Regulatory Capture.
Veteran/Retired Journalist/Author Satya Das explores the nature of A Civil Society (covered in his book “Us”) with Co-Hosts Rod Olstad and Leo Campos.