My latest: not every conservative is equal

CALGARY – There are different types of conservatives. In Canada, all will be facing big tests very soon.

All of them get categorized as conservatives. But in personality and style, they could not be more different.

There is Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservative Party, which was previously known as the Progressive Conservative Party. When the party’s name change happened in 2003 – via a merger that was more of a take-over – those conservatives still on the progressive side of the spectrum fretted about what would happen to the party of Mulroney and Stanfield.

Stephen Harper mollified them for a decade. While Harper would sometimes employ the rhetoric of his Reform Party antecedents, his actions, in power, were decidedly centrist. Ominous predictions that he would end gay marriage and abortion – including by this writer – never came to pass.

Harper mainly abstains from commenting on current affairs in Canada. A few days ago, however, he gave an important interview in which he excoriated Donald Trump, saying that the newly-installed president was neither a friend nor ally of Canada. Harper, then, is a conservative who knows the lexicon – but embraces a kinder and gentler approach when it counts.

Poilievre, on the other hand, favors bumper-sticker articulations of policy – which arguably works well in the Internet age, when everyone is competing for attention in a cyber-space filled with a trillion channels. But it’s a style that has aroused suspicions that Poilievre favors simplistic solutions to complex problems. And, perhaps, it has contributed to a significant recent slide in Conservative support in Ontario, which he needs to win majority power.

It is a puzzle, because Poilievre can give thoughtful answers when he is in the mood – during a recent tour in Atlantic Canada, for example, his plan to respond to American tariffs was more comprehensive than anything heard to date by federal Liberals. Then, a few days later, Poilievre actually accused a Zionist Jewish Liberal MP of favoring Hamas. It was disgusting, and it was the sort of thing of which electoral defeats are made.

Trump, of course, is who he is: no one can accuse him of hiding the flavor of conservatism he espouses. He is a conservative in the mold of former president William McKinley, an empire-building conservative Republican who once admitted he couldn’t locate the Philippines on a map – but seized it anyway in 1898.

Trump’s military threats against Panama, Greenland and Denmark – an actual NATO ally – eerily recall McKinley’s manifest destiny madness. Canada, which has also been repeatedly threatened by Trump, would be unwise to dismiss Trump’s McKinley-style expansionism. (Trump, meanwhile, would be wise to avoid McKinley’s fate: an anarchist assassinated the 25th president in 1901.)

[To read more, subscribe here]


IHR

On this #InternatHolocaustRemembranceDay I am filled with sadness about the past, and anxiety about the future.

Never forget. Never give up.


My latest: who is the enemy?

One’s enemy reveals himself by degrees.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia did not suddenly show itself to be the enemy of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. At dawn on that day, yes, Russia launched air and ground assaults on Ukraine, from the North, South and East. Yes.

But Russia had been massing troops on its border with Ukraine since 2021. Putin had penned bellicose essays justifying his planned war, promoting “the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” Threats were made, over and over, to Ukrainian leaders. Russia’s transformation into the enemy of Ukraine did not happen overnight. It had been underway for some time.

So, too, Donald Trump. He has transformed himself into Canada’s enemy, and the word is not overstatement. The dictionaries define “enemy” as “a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.” That is effectively what the newly-returned President of the United States is, now: the one who is actively opposed to us, as a people and a nation. The one who has repeatedly shown hostility towards us.

The evidence is not difficult to find. There has been a lot of it, for weeks, both before and after Trump took the oath of office (without, we note, placing his hand on the Bible).

• Trump has said he will use “economic force” against us

• Trump has repeatedly said he will impose 25 per cent tariffs on us – which will result in hundreds of thousands of Canadians losing their jobs and a recession

• Trump has said he wants to take over Canada, and make us the “the 51st state”

• Trump has mocked our leaders, from Justin Trudeau to Pierre Poilievre

And, this week, Trump broadcast his apparent hatred of Canada to the world – to an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davis. (And, permit us some amusement about those who used to loudly fulminate about WEF-related conspiracies – and how they have gone deeply silent since their hero showed up there.)

[To read more, subscribe here]


Dear Musk MAGA morons

Here’s what I’ve been saying to people who defend him, like you do.

Go to your office lunchroom. Wait until it’s crowded. Then stand up and do exactly – no more, no less – what he did. Twice.

Do that. Then, if you are still employed or not in a hospital, drop me a line.

Sincerely,

Etc.


Not that I know anything about politics

People can make their own decisions. But Canadians who enthusiastically defend Trump and his retinue of grifters and bigots?

You are way, way offside Canadian public opinion (up to 90 per cent offside). And you – and your cause – are going to regret your enthusiasm. Believe it.


My latest: political sinners

To us Catholics, there are sins of “commission” and “omission.” 

Sins of omission happen when we know we should have done something right, but didn’t. A sin of commission is one where we actually take some action – in thought, word, or deed. Those sins can be intentional or unintentional.

Politically, there have been an awful lot of sins happening this week. Sins of commission and omission, everywhere.

The American ones are well-known.  Newly-reinstalled President Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 convicted rioters who stormed Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. Among them were white supremacists and neo-Nazis. One, Robert Keith Packer, became well-known for wearing a sweatshirt that read “CAMP AUSCHWITZ” and “work brings freedom.” On the back, it said “STAFF.” He got out, which is Trump’s sin of commission.

Trump’s top unelected advisor, Elon Musk, also was arguably sinful, too.  Musk got onstage at Capital One Arena in Washington, where Trump was holding a rally.  Musk thanked the assembled MAGA folks for “making it happen” and then – twice, not just once – made a stiff-armed salute.

A debate immediately commenced as to whether Musk made a Nazi salute or not. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is a history professor at New York University, said on X: “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.” Israeli academic and activist Shai Davidai wrote on Instagram that “doing a Nazi salute is never okay…you’re normalizing that which shouldn’t be normalized.” The Anti-Defamation League, which used to take issue with Nazi symbols, posted a much-maligned message saying “this is a delicate moment,” can’t we all just get along, blah blah blah.

[To read more, subscribe here]