Over the last two decades, Baden resident Derek Alton has worked as a researcher, facilitator and storyteller focused on one question: how do we make governments work better?
Alton founded Civic Punks in 2025 with a mission to speak to as many people as possible who are improving how governments deliver services to their citizens. Before launching Civic Punks, Alton worked for the Canadian Open Data Society and the Government of Canada, and he was the co-founder of Civic Tech Ottawa.
Alton said that Canada used to be a world leader when it came to things like improving digital access, including launching some of the first government websites in the era’s early days. Today, Canada’s leadership in digital government has fallen behind, something Alton described as the bane of his existence.
In 2003, Canada ranked sixth place on the United Nations’ E-Government Development Index (EGDI). The rankings are based on a government’s ability to deliver online services, its telecommunication connectivity and human capacity. Today, Canada ranks 47th, behind countries including Russia, South Africa and Mongolia.
“The fact that we are 47th is an embarrassment…We’ve dropped the ball on it, and it is incredibly frustrating for me because I’ve been at the centre of all that stuff,” Alton said.
Alton founded Civic Punks to tell the stories of community and government leaders who are doing things differently. He described a civic punk as someone who has a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo, a genuine belief that government matters and sense of agency not just to complain, but to act for the community.
Community was a core part of his experience growing up as a Mennonite.
“Community is baked into your identity as a Mennonite. It’s what you grow up knowing, and so it’s always been something that is just what we did. To exist is to be in community,” he said.
It was during his time in university that Alton said he started to feel a sense of obligation to be part of helping make the world better. He said he quickly realized that government is the tool we must use to make change happen.
“It is the most powerful vehicle that we have to tackle any issue we care about. So, if you care about climate change, there’s no way we’re going to tackle climate change without government being a key actor, even if that role is enabling the private sector to solve problems,” Alton said.
Alton said the two biggest challenges now for change is that many people have lost faith in their governments and they feel detached from the people making decisions.
“They’ve lost faith for good reason. Governments are really struggling to do things, and it starts to feel like they’re not doing anything. The other thing is the idea that governments are controlled by a small group of elites. Government is something that’s over there, and it impacts me, but I don’t really impact it,” he said.
He said fixing this starts with helping people become more engaged and connected.
“Governments need to get better at building bridges and bringing people in. I hold to the idea that, ultimately, we are all government. Governance is the process by which we, as a group, come together to decide what our values are and then pool our resources to live out those values. The problem is we don’t experience that. Government feels like it’s out there instead of in here,” Alton said.
Alton’s work with Civic Punks sends him around the world to learn from the people improving how governments, and in turn, communities, run.
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