Bruce Dowbiggin
Justin Time For The Holidays: Doubling Down On The Carbon Cult
“Why North American Electric Vehicle Mandates Are Destined To Fail “ Toronto Star headline 19/12/23
On a recent Canada Talks chat with Matt Gurney on SiriusXM, we discussed the latest Liberal Party stink bomb of no gas-powered cars in Canada by 2035. Convicted felon Steven Guilbeault came back from his COP 2023 pep rally to announce that 12 years from now all vehicles must be either electric or hybrid.
Faced with polls showing the CPC winning as many as 220 seats in the next election this effusion of Green coercion (driven by Liberal polling) is sheer prattle. First, by 2035 Guilbeault and his boss Skippy will be living in some post-modern Europe under sinecure from the EU and WEF. Their Malthusian enthusiasms today are thus irrelevant. (#PMJT has informed his Quebec followers that he and his NDP slappies are taking his mandate to 2025.)
Second, all the inducements to buy electric have been met with studied indifference by Trudeau’s voters. The only people who see electric as the future are politicians and those on their payroll. Despite massive rebates manufacturers are sprinting away from the EV market.
Then there’s the idea that within two years’ time 20 per cent of all cars sold in Canada have to be zero emissions. How’s that going to work? To do so, Canada currently needs the additional equivalent of 35 Darlington-sized nuclear reactors @ $1.5 T. Are they going to force buyers to accept plug-ins?
No wonder Alberta premier Danielle Smith says, “it’s bananas. It’s not achievable.” There’s no way hers or other provinces can generate enough electricity by 2026 to charge hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles every day — not to mention the vast challenge of building charging stations on every corner of the province.
Guilbeault & Co. have no practical knowledge of the auto industry other than stroking huge cheques for battery factories that are irrelevant before they’re built. His Euro buddies want this, and that’s enough for him.
Matt and Usual Suspects were agreed on one thing. No amount of common sense or economic theory is going to bring the Devoted Ones back from the ledge. They’re currently running a wildly expensive national advertising campaign insisting that there IS a Canadian climate crisis and only they can solve the non-existent emergency.
For many Millennials, however, this hard sell makes perfect sense. In America the current denial cult is the death-wish fantasy Be Like Palestine. “In a recent poll, 51% of Americans between the ages of 18-24 expressed their belief that the Israelis should be forced to abandon their country and give it to Hamas.” Young people who can’t identify the infamous river or the sea are all-in on colonizer guilt.
As we wrote in September, stubborn resistance to facts or reason is now a hallmark of the Woke Left. “People find it hard to change their ways— particularly when they’ve defended them publicly for years. The New Left’s ironclad resistance to reason and debate is a feature, not a glitch. How to reach them in a friendly, inclusive manner?
Good luck. The Right’s challenge is thinking these people will respond to shame or being corrected. Can’t be done. Won’t be done. They’re like Japanese soldiers fighting WW II on a deserted island 25 years after armistice. They’ll die repeating the Donald Trump Bleach meme to themselves.
“It was the same for the #RussiaHoax, #FinePeopleHoax, #Russianhookers and now Hillary Clinton’s “real war on truth, facts, and reason”. These liberal road-tested canards persists to this day…
The latest cult cleansing is Biden’s patently false denial of any contact with son Hunter Biden’s shakedown scheme. The denial occupies first position beside #climateemergency on search engines and nightly newscasts. Famously, 51 former security directors and officials claimed, without evidence, that Hunter’s infamous laptop was Russian disinformation. Case closed, said MSNBC.
No wonder so many consumers of legacy media can blithely claim there is no substance to any of the Hunter stories documented by the competition and chronicled on his own hard drive.
The Canadian equivalent of denial culture came with the magic “cure-all” vaccines. Rather than publicly confront the Truckers Convoy on the refusal to take Covid-19 vaccines (which are now accepted as being flawed ), Trudeau hid in the Rideau Cottage calling truckers “an insult to science”. To make sure they never got a chance to question him he sent the cops after them, arrested them, suspended their civil liberties and finances and subjected them to show trials.
And he was supported by the purchased Canadian media which vilified the protesters— for lack of armed insurrection or rioting— for staying too long in their protest. Many promoted false stories of arson and foreign financing of the convoy.”
There has been no apology or even clarification of this deliberate lying and dissembling from media. Instead they pump out more misrepresentation to their target demographic. No wonder the public is confused if facts drift away from the tightly controlled narratives of CBC, MSNBC, CNN or Toronto Star. Their “facts” don’t match up with what they discover outside the bubble.
Guilbeault and his boss Trudeau are masters of doubling down in the face of fallacious whoppers. Their legacy will be long-lasting. In September we remarked on a story from former BMO CEO Tony Comper. He recalled the press conference to announce a merger between two Japanese automobile corporations. Everything was going swimmingly until someone at the presser asked how long would it be before the two corporate cultures fully merged?
One of the CEOs replied without hesitation. “Forty-three years.”
Forty-three years? Why forty-three years? he was asked.
“Because that’s how long it will be until the executives who made this deal are all dead.”
Make no mistake. “Everyone we don’t like must disappear” is the goal of this exercise. When their collective memory is snuffed , the real work can begin on their futures spent using other people’s money to change the world.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
“Do you want to live in a country where those at the very top live lives of luxury, but must do so in gated communities behind ever higher fences, using private health care and airplanes because the public sphere is so degraded and the wrath of the vast majority of their less privileged compatriots burns so hot?”— Christia Freeland explains capital gains tax
These are trying times for Clevers like Freeland, the army of technocrats, intellectuals, media grandees and social engineers who re-fashioned the Western World in their own image since the cultural revolutions of the 1960s. For decades their fashionable notions on society have gradually replaced the discipline of inquiry with the stagecraft of political theatre. Talking down has replaced talking straight.
What makes a Clever? That would be an approach that favours clever over smart, novelty over fact, emotion over sober inquiry, writing cheques over righting wrongs. A Clever is a 24/7 devotee to the Saul Alinsky machinations of governing, not the governed. Looking around one can see their gormless faces everywhere from the PMO in Canada to the labyrinth of the EU to the Sunday morning news panels.
Their knowledge of political kabuki and the back channels of power is unsurpassed. While the public devotes a sliver of its attention to politics, the Clevers spend 24/7 thinking how to game the system. Their Malthusian enthusiasms mean they can’t appreciate the dynamism of the human imagination. It’s why #TrudeauIsDone fits in so well. He is replicated where ever a nice suit and an iron commitment to being clever is mandated.
Rationally one would have thought these insubstantial people might have been stopped at the door of whatever academic hothouse cultured them. But no, their hopeless vacuity has spilled over into the political world. The years since 1968 have seen exponential growth in fashionistas from Trudeau 1 to Trudeau 2 who want tunas with good taste, not tunas that taste good.
In that they’ve been assisted by their brethren in the media and culture industries who likewise sprung from educational institutions that now quiver in fear of co-eds wearing keffiyehs. Through films, books and the churn of traditional media they glorified the marxist victimization cult. Because a distressed population is a vulnerable population, it keeps opposition at bay. With the advent of hate speech and censorship laws, Clevers are now using the courts to protect themselves from criticism.
But their claim on ascendency has diminished significantly since 2020. YOC. Year of Our Covid. The year that the Clevers pushed all their roulette chips onto red. Trusting in charm and dumb luck, they used police and a snitch culture to subdue entire populations in their homes. Made them wear worthless masks. Closed children’s schools. Turned friends and family against each other employing the most crude intimidation in the name of Science®
Those objecting had their financial and democratic rights stripped (See: Trucker’s Convoy). You don’t like it? Here, try being locked incommunicado in a hotel for a few days.
But their luck ran out. The virus emergency petered out; most sentient humans saw what many had suspected. The Covid crisis was either manufactured or a bollocks from people of no substance but lots of power. As the mask literally dropped on Covid, desperate Clevers turned to other familiar narratives to distract a disbelieving population. According the CBC, CNN, MSNBC and the Washington Post their opponents were the “death of democracy”. Racists. Transphobes. The “Far Right”.
And— thank you, Israel— fascist colonizers.
But this time, polls show it hasn’t worked across the West. Inflation has opened their eyes. No one is impressed by Clever anymore. In Canada, Trudeau’s government would be crushed by the Conservatives in an election were it not for the NDP carbuncle on their back. In the U.S., all the lawfare thrown at the bumptious Donald J. Trump has only increased his polling. In France, Emmanuel Macron, the dauphin of refined inadequacy, has called a snap election to head off populist Marine LePen. In Belgium and Holland, conservatives are taking over governments from weepy entitlements leftists.
Clevers like Germany’s Olaf Scholz and the Scandinavian leaders seem on the brink of being rejected in their country. In bankrupt Argentina libertarian Javier Miliel has taken a blowtorch to the progressive apparatus of state. Only the immutable EU and the now-worthless UN seem resistant to having their authority clipped. But even that might change if Trump is re-elected, despite efforts of the Blob in the government apparatus.
If looking for a tipping point, the Clevers’ embrace of murderous Hamas may have been the final straw. Coming on the heels of the Covid hustle, excusing the unspeakable snuff videos produced by Hamas and the demonstrating radicals in Canadian universities has been a loser for the Mao-worshipping set.
Even virulent antisemitism does not seem enough to rescue Hamas and Joe Biden from opponents. (Biden’s desperation to be an architect of “peace” in Gaza is palpable.) Biden is now threatening domestic opponents with F-15s. Freeland talks of barbarians at the gates of Revenue Canada. Euro Clevers summon up the spectre of Hitler.
But worse is to come for them. When this populist wave washes over them they may finally become the Irrelevants. We can only hope.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
“@TheBabylonBee cheekily sums it up. “Caitlin Clark Canonized As Saint After Performing Miracle Of Making Women’s Basketball Watchable.”
What a month or so it’s been for basketball star Caitlin Clark as she starts her WNBA career with the Indiana Something or Others. She’s had moments of triumph (30 points in a recent game). And a couple of duds. She’s also been roughed up physically with veteran players flagrantly fouling her, going out of their way to intimidate her physically. Initally, no foul was called on Chennedy Carter.
The League response to all this has been tepid refusal to rein in the veterans. NBA commissioner Adam Silver glibly called it a “welcome to the league” moment. (Clark says no hard feelings.) Most of which has played out in front of sellout crowds in a league that has papered more houses than a dry waller. “Confused WNBA Player Asks What This Huge Crowd Of People Is Doing At Game
And now women’s basketball’s young pole star has been left off the U.S. Olympic basketball team for Paris this July. You’d almost think the stars of the WNBA— a secondary sporting league at best propped up by the NBA— resent her being in their midst. That they fear she’ll break up the cozy LGBTQ/ BLM clubhouse they have going on. But we predicted as much in an April column entitled Now Comes The Complicated Part when her college career ended.
“The most interesting reaction may come from the women already in the WNBA. The intrusion of a white, conservative, straight Catholic woman in their midst won’t sit well in a league where women of that description have been made to feel unwelcome in many dressing rooms. She’ll need a tough hide to survive the resentment of other players who see themselves as the stars and Clark as a product of white privilege.”
That resentment has been naked and ugly from many who see themselves eclipsed by Clark’s obvious drawing power— and by their own inability to break the glass ceiling. “As we have written on multiple occasions, women’s sports has been in search of a marketable messiah to change it from an ESPN liberal hype to mainstream. For too many in the audience— including women— the image of these sports has become too political. As the gender revolt took hold, fans were turned off by the strident lesbian soccer player Megan Rapinoe and WNBA star Britney Griner who turned every game into a referendum on the latest #BLM talking points.
“There was a resistance to their defiance and the craven submission of corporate voices infatuated by DEI praise. To some, players on opposing hockey terms marrying each other was jarring. But Clark seems to be breaking the mold. The advertising world will beat a path to her door despite the second consecutive defeat in the Women’s Final. She’ll be honoured with woman athlete of the year and more.”
And, apparently, she’ll be resented for it. Days ago stories claimed that a Clark fan harassed Chicago star Carter and other players when they got off their team bus and outside their hotel. Wonder why? Oh yeah, Carter levelled Clark with the cheap shot.) That stirred the pot until it was revealed that— holy Jussi Smollett— it was all made up. (Must be something about Chicago.)
If you needed more evidence that Clark is living rent-free in the brains of these prima donnas, the rebellion by the veterans of the Olympic basketball team tells you all you need to know. It’s a scene reminiscent of the played-out Rapinoe getting a spot on the U.S. National Women’s team in place of a younger player to placate the team’s “equilibrium”.
WNBA star Cheryl Reeve explained the Clark snub. “I’ve never been in the trenches with her. Not even at a USA Basketball camp. Asking a coach to integrate someone she has no history with, at tournament with highest stakes, is a lot. A lot a lot.” Similar noises came from other resentful players. Which is so much twaddle.
First, Team USA hasn’t lost an Olympic match since 1996. So the twelfth spot is hardly a game changer. Second, you could hire Joyce Behar to coach this team, and they wouldn’t lose. Third, Clark has played on USA FIBA teams winning gold in 2017, 2019, and 2021 with MVP honours . She won Nike Elite national championship during high school. Named Iowa Gatorade player of the year twice. She’s got the resumé.
But she doesn’t tick the right cultural boxes for the WNBA players and their political allies. That’s what happens when players coddled by ESPN and the Title IX zealots call the shots. Noted humanist and hooper Barack Obama made lots of noise about women athletes getting equal pay as their due, but he’s gone mute when black stars acted nasty toward a white athlete.
There’s no question that, having made tin gods of the WNBA players for political purposes, few in authority want to check that privilege. “Women’s basketball decision-makers are not dumb,” writes black journalist Jason Whitlock on X to explain the silence. “They’ve been bullied by the BLM-LGBTQIA+Silent P Alphabet Mafia bigots.” Adds Clay Travis, “Women’s basketball hates its fans and doesn’t want to grow their game. That’s the only conclusion you can draw from their treatment of Clark. She would quadruple their (Olympic) viewership by herself. No brainer.”
To say nothing of the USA jerseys she’d sell. But the political water carriers don’t care. They would return the WNBA to what it’s always been, a subsidized pet project for the progressives in media and government. Perhaps the most on-the-nose indicator about the WNBA’s image is that Toronto is getting a team in the league. It’s a non-binary marriage made in progressive heaven.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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