When Ben Hur was launched as a stage play in 1899 it became an immediate sensation.  Stagehands were hired to shake tarps to make the background set look like waves, while others rocked the fighting ships back and forth in an effort to make it look realistic.  A year of preparation went into the production, with the highlight being the chariot race in the grand arena.  People had been practicing for months – the white horses leading Ben Hur and the black steeds powering his enemy Masala's chariot.  Then something went wrong behind the scenes, with the result that Masala won the contest – a conclusion that threw the plot, and the rest of the evening, into disarray. I thought of that story repeatedly in these past few weeks as so much in politics failed to finish as planned.  We weren't supposed to end up in this place and it appears the political elites have lost considerable control of the political process in a number of countries.  The politics of Europe and America now share an equal dose of uncertainty and perhaps danger. This week's Republican convention reminds us again that standard politics is no longer a sure thing.  For an entire year the Republican Party proceeded as though Donald Trump was a novelty, an also-ran, who would surely bring lots of attention but never be a serious candidate.  All that party machinery!  All that preparation!  All that fundraising to get support for the major candidates!  And then the publicity stunt candidate triumphs. This American campaign is one for the ages, whether people like it or not.  But after all the analysis is done, with pundits ad nauseam picking apart the entrails, one key reason stands out as to why Donald Trump achieved what he did: the voter. It was supposed to be the usual kind of campaign that affirms democracy still works by selecting from the choices the political class provides.  The problem is that the billionaire wasn't the figure either the party apparatus or even the media initially preferred to be crowned.  On the flip side, in the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders was pulling off a similar kind of revolution that to this day carries momentum even following Hillary Clinton's clinched nomination and the endorsement of Sanders. Let's face it: Donald Trump prevailed because he garnered too much support to deny him the prize.  This isn't the year of Trump, but the year of the voter – perhaps more so than even Barack Obama's remarkable run in the 2008 election. And now we have Brexit and all the chaos that will go on for months, likely years.  With both France and Germany going to the polls next year, the jury is out as to the overall result.  In order to achieve his last election victory, British PM David Cameron rolled the dice and promised a referendum on Britain's continued membership in the European Union, likely sure he could control the political process.  Except he couldn't, and now a political Pandora's Box has been completely kicked over. It remains tempting to talk about the major personalities in all this bedlam as the collective reason for the unpredictability, but in a very real sense this has been about troubled citizens, not their ultimate leadership choices.  Something seismic is clearly going on and its impact is changing so many preset ideas regarding our politics. The era of political pandering by parties to voters while at the same time ignoring the global challenges citizens face and the values they hold dear is seemingly coming to an end – citizens don't believe the hype anymore.  Readily assuming that political elites no longer understand the profound challenges faced by the electorate, voters are colouring outside the lines and opting for choices that are no longer the safe ones - something Abraham Lincoln deciphered over 150 years ago, as noted by strategist Ariel Moutsatsos: “Public sentiment is everything.  With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.  Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.” None of this means, of course, that voters have voted rationally, but they have shown the political classes in their respective countries that they're tired of being duped and want in.  The great danger is that their stretch for a collective voice might unleash dominoes of great uncertainty.  If in their arrogance the political managers created winds of change, voters themselves must be somber and diligent lest they reap the whirlwind.   Glen Pearson was a career professional firefighter and is a former Member of Parliament from southwestern Ontario.  He and his wife adopted three children from South Sudan and reside in London, Ontario.  He has been the co-director of the London Food Bank for 29 years.  He writes regularly for the London Free Press and also shares his views on a blog entitled “The Parallel Parliament“.   Follow him on twitter @GlenPearson.