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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during the resumption of parliamentary question period, a day after Conservative leader Pierre Poièvre was expelled from the House of Commons in Ottawa on May 1.Blair Gable/Reuters
Mainstream media in the United States is generally slow to cover Canada. So it took them a while to realize that it's no longer 2015 in the Great White North, and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not only domestically unpopular, but politically oblivious.
This unexpected turn of events puzzled them and suddenly made them curious. “Is Canada really ready to become the next Western country to follow the global wave of far-right populists?” Box asked after Mr. Trudeau was interviewed on his daily podcast last week.
A New York Times op-ed by Canadian journalist Stephen Marche on Sunday laid out the unvarnished truth for the paper's progressive readers. “Political careers often end in failure,” Marke points out. “Justin Trudeau, one of the world's great progressive leaders, may be heading for that moment.”
I'm sure many Brooklyn Night Times subscribers choked on their skinny chai lattes when they heard the news. At issue, Marquet warned, is “more important than a single politician's career: Canada's modern liberal, multicultural society, which happens to be the legacy of the prime minister's father.” .
Vox's Zach Beauchamp, who dismantled Conservative leader Pierre Poièvre for American readers, came to less alarming conclusions. While Marche sees him as a threat to Canada's “free and multicultural society,” Beauchamp points to Poièvre's support for immigration as the clearest evidence that distinguishes him from right-wing radicals elsewhere. “His populism is largely rhetorical rather than regime-threatening, because Canada's institutions to limit extremism remain essentially intact.”
Until this week, I might have agreed with that conclusion. I don't really understand it now. The events of the past few days suggest that Canada has finally joined peer democracy, entering a post-liberal era where left and right no longer agree on even the basics of liberal democracy.
Capital “l” liberal endorsement of identity politics and capital “c” conservative disdain for “ivory tower elites” have led both parties to abandon long-held consensus views of what is the public good. I decided to abandon it. The antipathy between Trudeau Grits and Poièvre Tories goes beyond mere partisanship. Politically it is toxic to the body.
Last week, a video was released of Poièvre expressing support for anti-carbon tax demonstrators camped on the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border. “People believed his lies,” Poièvre was heard telling demonstrators, referring to Trudeau, where a flag bearing the prime minister's name and an expletive was visible. “Everything he said was bullshit from top to bottom.'' Mr. Poilievre is seen getting out of his trailer, which has a symbol similar to that of the far-right extremist group Diagoron painted on the door.
It would be naive to believe that some aspect of this is a coincidence. If there's anything the Poilievre Conservatives are good at, it's posting dog whistle videos that provoke Pavlovian reactions on both the left and the right. The Liberals were more than happy to go along, with Liberal Leader Stephen McKinnon standing up in the House of Commons on Monday to criticize Poièvre for “again.” [encouraging] He is a supporter of white supremacy, anarchy, and misogyny. ”
The story unfolded in the House of Commons on Tuesday as Prime Minister Trudeau accused Poilievre of “showing us what disgraceful, spineless leadership looks like” by pandering to him as a “white supremacist.” The scene could not be dismissed as Rideau's spring enthusiasm. . The Conservative leader was expelled from the House of Commons after just one day for describing the federal exemption from the Controlled Drugs Act, which paved the way for British Columbia's decriminalization experiment, as “a bizarre policy by this eccentric prime minister.” Ta. But its corrosive influence on our politics will be felt for months to come.
“Weirdo” is what we call political opponents when they have no respect for them or the norms and institutions that underpin our democracy. Not surprisingly, this is one of President Donald Trump's favorite quotes. He used the term to describe his political opponents and the Democratic Party in general. He often replaces it with “wack job” or “nut job” to show off his vocabulary.
According to Merriam-Webster's definition, “bizarre” means “having or exhibiting a highly abnormal or diseased mental condition.” In some cases, it may be necessary to warn voters about the danger of lunatics and lunatics seeking political office. That hasn't happened yet in Canada. But the decadence of our political discourse is leading us to a place where it could become a reality.
A complacent Mr. Trudeau dismisses the vast numbers of Canadians who feel left behind in a post-liberal world as white supremacists and misogynists. Mr. Poièvre, shamelessly despicable, uses their grievances to incite hatred (the word is not very strong) against those who cannot justify their sense of exclusion.
Our leaders are failing us. We must not let them take us too.
