The novelist Margaret Atwood wrote and narrated a short animated video this week on the ways that countries can devolve into totalitarian nightmares. Released by The Financial Times, the video was a concise recap of how, in the 20th century, moments of chaos combined with the weakening of traditional institutions led to horrific dictatorships on the left (the Soviet Union under Stalin) and the right (Nazi Germany under Hitler). In a bit of cosmic alignment, also released last week was an Abacus poll that found that one-third of adult Canadians cannot recall taking any courses in civics in elementary and...