Biden’s democracy summit is a chance for Canada to show off

A global summit on democracy led by a country where democracy is under siege begins Thursday.

It’s no surprise China is mocking Joe Biden’s hosting of 100-plus countries as some kind of “joke.” Meanwhile China is claiming – a much bigger joke – that it is a democracy.

The American run-up to the summit – the ransacking of the Capitol, states restricting voting rights, the denial of legitimate voting counts – gives ample fodder to the detractors.

But by slotting countries into non-democratic and democratic camps, the summit will intensify divisions.

It’s risen to fifth in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest democracy index, trailing only smaller countries such as Iceland and Norway where challenges are hardly as formidable.

Biden wants to build on a compact of democratic countries with an in-person global summit next year.

summit, China tries to move the goalposts on the meaning of ‘democracy’.

Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy creates an opportunity to rethink our current political path.

All’s not to say Canada’s democracy isn’t deficient in a great many respects.

By comparison with the American democracy, it’s difficult to recall another time when differences stacked up so highly in Canada’s favour.

Canada – I realize it’s unCanadian to boast about the country like this – has been able to withstand the tests.