There and Back Again

As we come up to municipal election time, join us at the Duncan Showroom for a timely and thought provoking literary evening with readings from Gabriola writer Bill Gaston (author of Spying on America) and Victoria writer Richard Johnson (co-author of Democracy's Second Act). Kindly moderated by Cathy Robertson of Community Futures. This is a free event - please RSVP on our Eventbrite page. Doors open at 6:30. Both author's books will be for sale at the event, if you'd like to pre-reserve your copy - visit our website or call us at 250-748-1533. A little bit about their books! On a June morning in 2022, author Bill Gaston drives off the Victoria–Port Angeles ferry in a rented Dodge Charger with his two sons. Born in the USA but “Canadian through and through,” Gaston is on a road trip to Tabor, Iowa, the town founded by his great, great, great-grandparents as the westernmost hub of the Underground Railroad. Both a sideways glance at contemporary American culture and a mordant yet tender account of the true meaning of ancestry, Spying on America is an unpredictably insightful exploration of family, Canada’s neighbour, and the “American bald ego.” In Democracy’s Second Act: Why Politics Needs the Public, Richard Johnson and Peter MacLeod argue that the first act of democracy – anchored in voting rights and representative government – has achieved extraordinary gains. Free elections, near-universal suffrage, and the peaceful transfer of power reshaped societies and expanded human freedom. But these achievements represent the promise of democracy, not its completion. Drawing on groundbreaking citizens’ assemblies in Ireland, Canada, and France – as well as democratic innovations from more than a dozen countries, their book offers a hopeful, clear-eyed vision for what comes next.