Politics & Power Quote by Stockwell Day

There is a soothing sleight of hand in the phrase "aggressively... openly and democratically". Day tries to yoke conflict and legitimacy together: yes, we fight, but our fighting is virtuous because it happens in public, under rules, and ends at the ballot box. The line isn’t really about differences; it’s about permission. It reassures listeners that disagreement can be sharp without being destructive, then quietly narrows what counts as acceptable conflict to what can be processed by institutions.

The subtext is a pitch for procedural patriotism. "Our history" does double duty as evidence and warning: we have done this before, therefore you should trust the system now; if you don’t, you’re stepping outside the national story. "If necessary" is the escape hatch, allowing "aggressively" to read as toughness rather than belligerence, a nod to a political culture where leaders must signal strength without admitting to polarization as a strategy.

Contextually, it reflects a familiar Canadian self-image: civility plus compromise, contrasted implicitly with places where disagreement turns into paralysis or violence. But the rhetoric also sanitizes power. Voting is presented as the great solvent, a mechanism that dissolves conflict into a countable outcome. What’s left unsaid is who gets to set the agenda, whose differences are deemed legitimate, and what happens when elections don’t resolve deeper structural disputes. The line works because it offers comfort and discipline at once: speak up, even loudly, but accept the verdict.