It doesn’t matter “why” our country is going populist. As usual we hide in the woods instead of seeing what’s really on the battlefield.

The political tide is turning, spurred along by populist demagoguery, misinformation, the global trend of conspiracy and outright fabrication. The politics of hate and division are being employed and cheered on from all sides. We’re arguing silly things now instead of just outright saying this is dangerous and destructive and our country will suffer terrible damage and we should all be against it.

I think the thing that bothers me most is that @PierrePoilievre needed to and had no compunction against convincing millions of Canadians that their country is broken and weak just to gain political power. Our proud accomplishments are called “woke”, our distinguished place in … … the world lied about, our legitimate *efforts* to lead the world in the really important things such as equal human rights in a modern society made a punch line in a sophomoric joke and repeated mindlessly by wannabe journalists who are less than tabloid hacks.

A boy in my elementary school was clearly “different”. Liked frilly things and sparkles and sometimes wore a tutu that he kept hidden in his backpack and put on when he got to school.

The teacher would sometimes say she liked one of his self-decorated t-shirts. One day he came to school in bad shape. Bruised and cowed. He was wearing jeans, a shirt and a pair of brand new boots. The kind you use to kick at clods of dirt.

All his sparkle was gone. The kind on his clothes, the kind in his heart.

I posted earlier about the dangerous misinformation coming from @PierrePoilievre and @CPC_HQ. My specific example was the conspiracy theory that the federal government started the Alberta forest fires last summer.

I found over 2,500 Twitter and Facebook posts which reference … … ,directly or indirectly, the statement / accusation made IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, by the leader of the opposition.

https://twitter.com/devinshat/status/1657286494200152065

We’re all dealing with friends and loved ones caught in the misinformation matrix Poilievre’s been building. One of my nieces told me the other day that there really was evidence that Trudeau started the wildfires, but the media had covered it up.

https://twitter.com/RodKahx/status/1729988280639225929

At first you scoff, sure they’re having you on and then you express concern about what they believe and that’s when they tell you that if we don’t get rid of Trudeau, our country will go bankrupt and pedophilia will become legal (or some such other craziness).

Liberals, despite not being the party with its very own press and which even a casual observer can see has few friends in the media, doesn’t criticize the media or sow doubt in the free press.

Conservatives have made it a pivotal part of their campaign.

That is your warning. This is one of the first ways populism shows itself and right wing populism, like we’re seeing now in Canada, pays special attention to undermining the confidence of the public in the free press.

See … You and I, random voters and social media users, can call out the press …

Know what’s making me really angry? Well, I’m going to tell you.

In 2017, shortly after the dumber, less dangerous American Poilievre - Trump - was elected and the Islamophobia and anti-immigration rhetoric was off the charts - here and there, a Canadian conservative shot up … … a Mosque, killing six. Partly inspired by Rebel Media, the Canadian hate exporting media entity (who also inspired the Christchurch shooting), it kicked off a flurry of sympathetic “well, what did those barbaric Muslims think would happen?” that wafted through the …

The only thing that’s going to save this country (and many others, but it’s Canada I care about) is if the government finds a way to package/disseminate the *information* that forms a reasonable path to “the truth” and citizens disseminate it.

It might surprise you to know … … virtually every expert on misinformation and the complex pathways it follows says that governments must take the lead on creating an environment where misinformation can’t easily take root.

Today is the day that I realized there is so much stacked against both America and Canada, the dirty politics, the outright lies, the pretence of caring about anyone not a rich “job creator”, in Canada the press, especially the ones with PostMedia taint, past or present … … the thoughtful “neutral” types who do the most damage because they are either pretending in good faith that it’s business as usual or they’re simply too trapped in their personal ideology to be able to pull themselves free …

When you immigrated to Canada, maybe from a place that was so extreme that you feared for your life, and you took the oath of citizenship, did you not understand that we’re a democracy, not a theocracy, a tolerant society, not a judgemental one? Did you not read the Charter or understand that we have laws and customs that protect the right of all Canadians to live their lives without religious or cultural pressure and discrimination?

Did you not come here for a better life?

In 1920, only 3 of 29 European countries were authoritarian while the remainder could be categorized as some form of democracy, imperfect or otherwise. By 1941, democracy had collapsed throughout Europe. They new autocratic regimes ranged from Mussolini/Italy and Hitler/Germany, to a group of more traditionally conservative autocracies in Austria, Poland, Hungary, and the Balkans.

No apologies for wanting Canada to be the country that turns back the tide of right wing populism that’s sweeping the globe.

We matter to the world in very important ways. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

We’re the biggest block of dark green left on the planet. There are people out there in other parts of the world that aren’t green, and I spoke with one of them tonight, who believe that if Canada can’t hold the line … no one can.

I reiterate my strong advice to the Liberals to create a press office, hold daily/few times a week press conferences, include a social media director and get yourselves back into the game.

For all our sakes. The media has become dangerously partisan, they won’t tell us what’s going on unless it makes the government look bad and they are outright distorting truth.

Their hands are on the scales and you need to push back.

When @PierrePoilievre compared a “shack” (it’s not) in Niagara Falls, Canada to a house in Niagara Falls, USA - zooming in on the price differential - he failed to mention that the infamous “Love Canal”, a toxic disaster area, is in this town.

It gets better. It’s a toxic disaster because the town, very much against “gatekeepers” and very much for “powerful growth”, decided to suspend much of the safety regulation around building permits and allowed houses to be built on the toxic site.

I did a quick overview of current rates of food inflation.

I left out obvious anomalies like Ukraine.

I took 15 countries from each of the “has/does not have carbon pricing” lists and did an average.

Average 13.6 in countries with and 21.2 in countries without.

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1676962689237786624

Countries with carbon pricing (food inflation rate):

Canada (8.3)
Chile (12.72)
Colombia (15.6)
Finland (11)
France (13.6)
Ireland (12.7)
Japan (8.6)
Latvia (18)
Mexico (9.1)
Norway (12.7)
Poland (19)
Portugal (9.5)
Singapore (6.8)
South Africa (11.8)
Sweden (14.16)

Avg: 13.6

A man who wants to be our Prime Minister did one of two things:

1. He was taken in, like a rube, by a Ponzi scheme which he went to the mat for, publicly committing to it because he saw it as a genuinely viable option for a national economy and a “hedge against inflation” … … because he saw some YouTube videos “with my wife, late at night” and talked to some YouTubers about it.

OR

2. He didn’t buy in at all but saw it as a great hook for some of the more fringe elements of the party membership, knew they wouldn’t question him and ruthlessly …

Bench strength is the most important thing in politics.

Harper’s biggest mistake was surrounding himself with mediocrity so as to always be dominant.

Conversely, Justin Trudeau’s biggest strength is his ability to attract top end talent to the party. Harper, therefore, left behind a weak party without any obvious leaders. Because he wanted no challenges to his own leadership, he left us with followers.

When Trudeau leaves there is still a rich vein of talent on the bench, several of whom could lead this country.

“Kids need to get sick” is (a) wrong and a silly read of how immune systems work (b) not an excuse to deliberately make them sick or refuse to take precautions to prevent their illness. It’s a deliberate distortion of the truth that *exposure* to antigens is necessary to the point that folks aren’t even realizing that this is essentially what a vaccine does: manages exposure to antigens and creates antibodies so that serious illness will not occur.

I’m not arguing biology, medicine, immunology, respiratory infections, childhood diseases or development or vaccinology with you if you’re not in possession of a specific degree and/or experience in any of those fields.

Because that means you’re not an expert. And neither am I. Which leads me to my next point. I’m also not arguing with you if you are an expert in any of these fields.

Because I’m not one.

The last time I voted as a “fiscal conservative” was for Harper. I didn’t much like him and I didn’t much like the tone of the merged party but I was a “conservative”, after all and I thought we needed strong fiscal management. I learned some hard lessons during his time in office. First, I learned that conservatives don’t spend less money, they just spend it differently. Second, I learned that there are much worse things that can befall a country than some debt it can pay back.

There is no such thing as citizen journalism. There are citizens who put forward their opinions and there are journalists who have access to sources, archival and institutional memory and who are trained to report on situations. Sometimes they put forward their opinions … … but one must assume, in general and not absolute terms, that these opinions are formed by a broader exposure to current and historical events. Which doesn’t make them right, of course, just more likely to be so.