Pierre Poilievre stepped into the culture war on Sunday with a video decrying the assaults on Canada’s national culture that have erupted during Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. Some of these are the direct fault of that government, such as the new passports that demean and cheapen Canadian heritage.
Other incidents featured in the video, such as statue toppling and the vandalism of universities during the past year’s anti-Israel riots, are not directly Trudeau’s fault. However, his government has laid the groundwork for anti-Canadian ideas and done nothing to dissuade that radical, criminal activism.
One of the many challenges that Poilievre and the Conservative Party will face, should they form a government, will be a complete dismantling of the Liberal Party’s cultural regime.
Whether it be allowing crimes like vandalism and arson to go unpunished or doling out taxpayer dollars to those with contempt for Canada, the Liberals have tolerated radical activism without any hint of a backbone.
No citizenry is motivated to better their country without self-respect, and no citizenry can have self-respect if they are told that their traditions and ideals are futile and antiquated.
Modern progressive liberalism’s great flaw is the assumption that whatever motivates radical activists has to have a grain of legitimacy and, therefore, they must be listened to, no matter how rabid, bloodthirsty, or criminal their rhetoric and actions are.
Despite their encouraging words in the video released on Sunday, a Conservative government will not end the “woke weird wacko world of Justin Trudeau” with only words. The culture war exists and is being fought whether people like it or not.
Those who write off the culture war as a distraction typically fall on the side that is winning it. When a Liberal bemoans the culture war and professes their wish for it to end, it is only because they enjoy the status quo.
A nation is not an NGO, which is how Canadian progressives have come to frame Canada.
Uttering the terms “diversity,” “inclusion,” and “multiculturalism” is a branding exercise that can be heard across the English-speaking world. Ask an Australian in Melbourne what those three words mean, and they’ll give you the exact same answer as a Canadian in Toronto.
These terms are part of a universalist and cosmopolitan language that has no room for patriotism or respect for a distinct national identity.
This has been the basis for the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square, Fort Calgary, and Langevin Block. They have been replaced respectively by Sankofa Square, The “Confluence,” and the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council.
Colour and flair are supplanted by a sort of cultural dishwater, with all rooted distinctions erased for fear of causing offense.
If they win the next election, a Conservative government can place a moratorium on the renaming of federal and Crown properties, but achieving that and simply declaring victory would be a terrible mistake. This course of action only freezes the status quo, leaving it ready for future governments to thaw it back out.
The culture war is constant, and the forces trying to erode our cultural heritage are like mold. It can be scrubbed, rinsed, and sanitized, but combating it is ultimately a war of attrition that requires constant vigilance.
A wartime effort requires picking up the sword of federal government power and hacking and slashing away at the left-wing ideologies degenerating Canada.
This is not a matter of rank chauvinism but of civilizational life or death.
China, Russia, Turkey, and others have demonstrated that democracy is not something just waiting to happen in every country. Democracy is cultural, and culture is interconnected.
If institutions start to delegitimize Canadian historical, political, and cultural traditions simply because they originated in the British Empire, that delegitimization will spread beyond statues and street names. If the Crown and “capitalism” are destructive colonial imports, why not parliamentary democracy too?
Working, healthy parliamentary democracies are very rare outside of North America and Western Europe. Once past the eastern German border, political corruption and authoritarianism begin to rise and do not begin to disappear until the border of Japan. The so-called “Global South” is rife with dictatorships, strongmen, and military coups.
A Conservative government must assert itself as the leader of a democratic but distinct people, not the Board of Directors for an NGO. That is the preferred Liberal approach, which is a celebration of universalism and can only erase Canadian particularities.
What does culturally conservative policy look like? For starters, it can prosecute all those who took part in the statue topplings of 2020 and 2021.
There are hours of footage available, and not everyone is wearing a mask. Half the time, the participants and jubilant witnesses of the vandalism have their identities publicly listed.
If the participants in the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot in Vancouver can be arrested years after it happened, so can those who attacked public monuments. The message must be that heritage is, in fact, sacred and that vandalism does not go unpunished.
Institutions such as the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) received 16 per cent of their funding from the federal government in 2023. The WAG has representatives who have mused about burning pieces of art in their collection for being too “colonial,” which should be grounds to consider suspending its federal funding.
The only material that deserves to be burned is the awful new Liberal passports, which replaced images of Canadian history with scenes resembling dreary stock photos used by NGOs on their websites.
On the topic of NGOs: if a non-profit or other organization comes asking for a federal grant, any description of Canada as “the lands we now call Canada” or “so-called Canada” on their website or governing documents should be grounds for blacklisting, ideally, with no exceptions.
The anti-Canadian beast must be starved as much as possible. As with any good Conservative government, finances will hopefully be tight, and taxpayer dollars should be prioritized for those who truly love the country.
Canada Day celebrations should be turned into true spectacles every single year with federal money, with Canadians asked only to celebrate this truly great country and its proud history — not be scolded into reflecting on its sadder parts.
All these solutions are only small pieces of what should be a comprehensive culturally conservative policy. Nonetheless, they are necessary unless the Conservatives only wish to talk about the culture war, not fight it.
National Post