September is here and Lean Out is back with a new season of conversations with writers and thinkers from around the world. We could not think of a more important topic to kick off our fall season than the state of Canadian democracy. Our guest on the program today has written a new book that serves as a wake-up call — he says that while we observe the rituals of the democratic process, we have lost its spirit and its substance. 

Andrew Coyne is a columnist for The Globe and Mail and a weekly panelist on CBC’s The National. His debut book is The Crisis of Canadian Democracy.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com