Democracy Hacks: Conrad Black's Democracy Hack is inspired by his time in jail

This week, Conrad Black sat down with Jim to talk about his new history of Canada. Since he recently wrote 1020 pages about this country, we figured he might have a thing or two to say about how to make our institutions more democratic.

Black's book tells the story of Canada through its leaders, and highlights Sir John A. MacDonald, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Pierre Trudeau as the best. What made them great, he says, was the big projects they undertook-- for example the railway, or biculturalism. But do such opportunities exist any more? If supposed nation-building projects like pipelines can divide the country, can a Prime Minister still rally enough Canadians to achieve something big? Conrad Black thinks so.

"It has to be a goal sufficiently overarching that everybody can look up to it and say 'that is a good idea, we should aspire to it.' But you're not going to unify the country behind daycare and better benches at bus stops. They're important too, but that's not inspiration."

Conrad Black

When asked for his own democracy hack idea, Black turns to the justice system. He says he would take it in the opposite direction of the current government. He would like to improve legal assistance for Canadians who need help defending themselves, and also to stop sending non-violent criminals to prison.

"There's absolutely no reason to send non-violent people to prison. It's an absurd thing to do. It's only done because it's always been done. But it's a ridiculous, wasteful, and destructive thing to do."

Conrad Black

And yes, Black says his ideas are influenced by his own time in jail.