Thank you, Chair.
Dr. Galston, I mentioned Stephen Harper's book. Another book I've read recently which I've had a great interest in relative to this subject is How Democracies Die. I'm sure you're familiar with the authors there, as well: Mr. Levitsky and Mr. Ziblatt.
In that book, they talk a lot about forbearance. This was something that our previous witnesses mentioned significantly, the erosion of democracy over time. It's unfortunate for me to say, but I think we might be seeing this in Canada as well with this recent government, where we go from a full democracy to a flawed democracy, referencing The Economist Intelligence Unit's 2018 democracy index, and not only with that, but I'm sure you might have read the recent articles in the New York Times indicating the same thing, which I believe the Brookings Institution might possibly support as well.
Perhaps you could discuss the presence of forbearance in these European countries we are discussing here today and what we can do, as Canada, to discourage this forbearance, to discourage the erosion of the rule of law and the erosion of these historic customs that preserve democracy, not only in Canada but in all established democracies and evolving democracies throughout the world.