LitFest Presents: Dave Meslin, TEARDOWN: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up

Join us for a conversation with Dave Meslin, author of the new book TEARDOWN: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up, which is being called a “playbook for democracy in turbulent times.” Hosted by Elise Stolte, Edmonton Journal city columnist.

The headlines are full of examples of governments misleading their people, parties misleading their delegates, and policy drifting further and further away from what polls keep showing people want. We always vote for change, and yet we always end up with the same old lies, Penguin Random House Canada explains.

It's hard to change the world if you can't change a municipal by-law. TEARDOWN will show readers how to do both. And it will show us that these two challenges are not fundamentally different. Once we know that we can do it, and we know how to do it, we can get democracy working for us rather than against us.

DAVE MESLIN is an activist, artist, and community organizer who inspires better engagement between governments and citizens. He formed the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) that in 2005 was chosen as the "Best Activist Group" by both EYE Weekly and NOW magazines. TPSC published the first issue of Spacing Magazine, an award-winning urban affairs publication. Meslin appears as an expert on political engagement on national media. His TED talk about apathy has more than 1.5 million views and his 90-second video clip from the 2016 federal election coverage, using colourful stacks of Lego bricks to explain how our voting system fails us, has over 2.5 million views on Facebook alone.

Tickets are $15 in advance through Eventbrite, $20 at the door, subject to availability.