Bruce Dowbiggin
Rogue Populism: The Road Less Travelled
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‘You’ve got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?’—Dirty Harry
We have been staying up late trying to figure out the fatal flaw in the approaches of new Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and new Alberta premier Danielle Smith. From the amount of abuse being thrown at the pair you’d think they were a Van Gogh painting. They must be doing something terribly wrong.
Or not. There are many possible culprits in our search, but we have settled on one highly controversial initiative the two employed to gain power in their respective parties. It would appear that both Poilievre and Smith spent a long time away from the seat of power talking to ordinary people with no connection to the posh set.
They assiduously courted folk who’d been locked up in Covid quarantines and— suspiciously— a number who’d been buying gas that cost almost double the price of a year ago. They listened to voices that rarely get squeezed into the lineup on The National or receive guest editorials in the Toronto Star. Rumour has it they even spoke to people who’d been in the truckers’ convoy last February. Sedition.
They did almost all of this in-person research without using internet trolling as the means of communication. Then they signed up tens, even hundreds of thousands of new party members by telling them they’d articulate their feelings if elected. And they won.
As anyone familiar with the political game can tell you this populist stuff was a huge mistake. First off, if you want to hold high office in Canada you need to court the Media Party at its HQ in the Ottawa/ Toronto axis. Read the sage wisdom from Andrew Coyne, Susan Delacourt and Heather Mallick.
Next, you must flatter the gods of TV/ radio by appearing on their panels with the bien pensants and agreeing with hosts like Rosemary Barton or Nil Kuksal that Jean Charest was the smart CPC choice. The candidate with aspirations to being elected then must take a cross-section of their opinions, find a middle ground to flatter the press. They must piss on the Trucker Convoy while saying Trudeau was right to hide in a bunker away from the rabble.
Finally— and this is key— you have to steer clear of the “unrestricted information warfare practices” of the new data age. This neither Poilievre nor Smith bothered to do en route to office. When they raised the complaints they’d gained from ordinary voters about the Carbon Tax or the equalization plan they were deluged with constitutional arguments and legal opinions from the 613 chattering class.
When Smith had the temerity to raise the spectre of aggressive new Western sovereignty demands within the Federation you’d have thought she’d said nasty stuff about Anne Murray. Heads exploded in Toronto newsrooms. The tone was “all this populist stuff emulates Donald Trump’s improbable rise to power in 2016”. And when we say Donald Trump in proper Canadian society we are talking about Beelzebub, okay?
Yet here we are today. Both Poilievre and Smith have defied the odds. Smith is forgiving those who didn’t take the dodgy vaccines. Poilievre is laying traps in Question Period for the PM on the Emergency Measures overreach. Naturally, the Family Compact insist that the pair are symptomatic of rising white supremacy in the land. The truth is anything but. Not that it will protect them against the Resistance.
Smith properly divined that her predecessor, former federal cabinet heavyweight Jason Kenny— supposedly the perfect candidate— had lost the faith of his base during the Covid-19 disaster. Intimidated by alarmist health authorities (and their media pals) Kenney was swallowed by events. “The hard truth is,” writes Smith confidant Laura Pentlebury, “the members of this government watched as Public Health in Alberta terrorized small businesses and long-term care facilities into compliance. The ‘lax’ restrictions came at a terrible price to the mental well being of many Albertans.”
What made Kenny’s failure so ironic is that he was Stephen Harper’s man on the ground with immigrant groups in the 905, listening when Liberals took their votes for granted. He helped Harper to 10 years as PM. Yet he couldn’t translate this experience to save his career.
Taking a page from Quebec’s book, Smith— along with Saskatchewan— will not launch legal challenges in Ottawa’s swamp, either. Instead, she will wait for the feds to try to lay their hands on Alberta’s protected grain, guns and energy. Then she will tell them to get lost while inviting them into Alberta’s legal swamp for a mud wrestle that will last five years.
Poilievre performed as the nerd in the coffee shop, willing to listen to people who saw no signs of Climate Change beyond the Carbon Tax and the Green fanatics on CBC/ CTV/ Global. He made simple economic arguments in campaign ads— ads that were predictably ridiculed by 22 Minutes. He taunted the fatuous Trudeau agenda of “Do as I say, not as I do”. See: $400K trips to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
Keyboard elites are now scrambling to excuse them as outliers. But the municipal elections last week told a different story. Progressives were thumped for the mayor’s chair in Vancouver and Ottawa. School boards were rocked by parents outraged by the #trans #abortion #hateCanada curricula in public schools. Only Toronto did status quo (surprise!)
Outside Canada the same post-Covid backlash has begun with elections of populists in Italy and Sweden plus a likely swing rightward in the U.S. midterms Nov. 8. They all have the same resentments after Covid crackdowns were followed by financial hardships. Or unbalanced outcomes in courtrooms and corporate offices favouring the flavours of the day against everyday folk. The stigmatization of the middle class. Outrageous inflation and interest-rate jumps. 32 pronouns. Dozens of genders.
You’d hardly know this by watching the media & culture community. The great new world order can’t get here fast enough for the refined class. Just topple some statues and take drag queens to Grade 1 classes. Racism! Racism! Racism!
Poilievre and Smith are not steeped in skullduggery. They will make mistakes. The media party will savage them for it. (Smith was pummelled by the policy wonks for previous opinions on Ukraine.) The UCP faces a tough election against a sassy NDP next spring. Poilievre won’t get a crack at Trudeau till 2024— or until the NDP get enough coin to run another federal election.
Nothing is guaranteed in a non-confrontational country like Canada that worships authority. However their fates unfold in the next decade you can say one thing for certain. They have at least met the people they represent on their home ground. They’ve heard the pain and resentment of Covid authoritarianism. They’ve seen through the corruption practiced in Ottawa’s salons.
If Canada rejects them then it will be rejecting itself. And have hell to pay for it.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). 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 YearsIn NHL History, his new book with son Evan, was voted the eighth best professional hockey book all-time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted seventh best, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca
This past week has seen (some) Canadians celebrating their heritage— now that Mike Myers has officially reinterpreted Canadian culture as a hockey sweater and Mr. Dressup. This quick-change was so popular that Canadian voters even forgot an entire decade of Justin Trudeau.
In the United States, the people who elected Donald Trump– and not Andrew Coyne– to run their nation celebrated Independence Day with stirring renditions off The Star Spangled Banner, although few could surpass the brilliant performance of the song by the late Whitney Houston at the 1991 Super Bowl.
The CDN equivalent is some flavour of the month changing the words to O Canada at the Grey Cup game. Canada’s national anthem has always been open to interpretation by people who may or may not have Canada in their hearts. At the 2023 NBA All Star Game Canadian chanteuse Jully Black became the latest singer to attempt a manicure to the English lyrics of O Canada, penned for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony ( Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which words were written by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The English lyrics have “evolved” over the years, just like the dress code for the CDN PM..)
Black amended the first line from “our home and native land” to our home ON native land”. Because something-something. But this creative license is nothing new. Unlike Chris Stapleton, Marvin Gaye or Whitney Houston with the Star Spangled Banner, interpreters of O Canada have seen fit to amend the lyrics to their sensibilities. Roger Doucet, famed anthem singer of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970-80s, tried to add the words “we stand on guard for truth and liberty” in place of the first “we stand on guard for thee”.
In 1990, having nothing better to do, Toronto City Council voted 12 to 7 in favour of recommending that the phrase “our home and native land” be changed to “our home and cherished land” and that “in all thy sons command” be partly reverted to “in all of us command”. (The latter was officially adapted.)
While those attempts had mixed outcomes it appears it’s just a matter of time till Ms. Black’s class-conscious culling of the words is accepted. Being generous we here at IDLM thought we’d short-circuit piecemeal attempts to create a throughly Woke version of the anthem that would last till the latest fad come along. Herewith our 2023 definitive O Canada that even— maybe only— Justin Trudeau could love:
“O Canada” (Ignores the French fact in our culture) Change to “Eau Canada”
“Our home on native land” (ignores indigenous land claims) Change to “Get off our land, settlers”
“True patriot love in all of us commands” (Only true patriot love? There were officially 78 kinds of relationships in Trudeaupia. And commanding love?) Change to “Love the one you’re with”.
“With glowing hearts we see thee rise” (rise suggests triumph of white triumphalist dogma) Change to “Non judgementally we oppose the crushing impacts of Euro-based autocracy”
“The true north strong and free” (How can anyone be strong or free when we support America’s killing fields?) Change to “Heteronormative thinking must be stamped out at our borders. If we even have borders anymore.”
“From far and wide” (Body shaming) Change to “Obesity is a disease that is not helped by putting it in the national anthem.”
“O Canada” (biased against A, B, AB blood types) change to “Science Must Be Believed”
“We stand on guard for thee” (Spreads hate against the non ableist community) Change to “Please remain seated.”
“God keep our land” (God? God? What is this, the Reformation) “Change to “It’s your thing”
”Glorious and free” (Glorious harkens to the bourgeois subjugation of Indigenous thought processes by white Christian priests) Change to “A genocidal state if there ever was one”.
“O Canada we stand on guard for thee/
O Canada we stand on guard for thee” The denial of trans rights is used twice here to emphasize the intolerable burdens faced by people of the LGBTQ2R community as they seek respect and compensation for the evils of the founding oppressors.) Change to “Eau Canada, after 6.5 hours of intensive lectures on the gender, race and dissociative application of class war on your citizens you may someday come to understand that this song is a manifestation of your bigotry and exploitation of minorities— and why rhyming lines like “thee and free” is the work of the devil or J.K. Rowling, whomever comes to mind first.”
There. That wasn’t so tough, was it? Flows trippingly off the tongue like Mark Carney refusing a special inquiry into China buying the electoral process. Or perhaps we should simply accept a literal translation of the original French lyrics:
“O Canada!
Land of our ancestors
Glorious deeds circle your brow
For your arm knows how to wield the sword
Your arm knows how to carry the cross;
Your history is an epic
Of brilliant deeds
And your valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights.”
Yikes. That’s downright fascistic. But it’s Quebec, and we have to allow them their peccadilloes. So circle your brow with glorious deeds, grab a cross and a sword and valour steeped in faith. And remember we must be adaptable in the new era.
Unless it’s Alberta using the adapting to fuel its CO2-belching machines. In which case it’s man the battlements and follow Mike Myers into the fight.
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, 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.
With the Americans winning the first game 3-1, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact.
“It’s also more political than the (1972) Summit Series was, because Canada’s existence wasn’t on the line then, and it may be now. You’re damn right Canadians should boo the (U.S.) anthem.” Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur before Gm. 1 of USA/ Canada in The 4 Nations Cup.
The year 2025 is barely half over on Canada Day. There is much to go before we start assembling Best Of Lists for the year. But as Palestinian flags duel with the Maple Leaf for prominence on the 158th anniversary of Canada’s becoming a sovereign country it’s a fair guess that we will settle on Febuary 21 as the pivotal date of the year— and Canada’s destiny as well.
That was the date of Game 2 in the U.S./Canada rivalry at the Four Nations Tournament. Ostensibly created by the NHL to replace the moribund All Star format, the showdown of hockey nations in Boston became much more. Jolted by non-sports factors it became a pivotal moment in modern Canadian history.
Set against U.S. president Donald Trump’s bellicose talk of Canada as a U.S. state and the Mike Myers/ Mark Carney Elbows Up ad campaign, the gold-medal game evoked, for those of a certain age, memories of the famous 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. And somehow produced an unprecedented political reversal in Canadian elections.
As we wrote on Feb. 16 after Gm. 1 in Montreal, the Four Nations had been meant to be something far less incendiary. “Expecting a guys’ weekend like the concurrent NBA All Star game, the fraternal folks instead got a Pier Six brawl. It was the most stunning beginning to a game most could remember in 50 years. (Not least of all the rabid Canadian fanbase urging patriotism in the home of Quebec separation) Considering this Four Nations event was the NHL’s idea to replace the tame midseason All Star Game where players apologize for bumping into each other during a casual skate, the tumult as referees tried to start the game was shocking.
“Despite public calls for mutual respect, the sustained booing of the American national anthem and the Team Canada invocation by MMA legend Georges St. Pierre was answered by the Tkachuck brothers, Matthew and Brady, with a series of fights in the first nine seconds of the game. Three fights to be exact ,when former Canuck J.T. Miller squared up with Brandon Hagel. (All three U.S. players have either played on or now play for Canadian NHL teams.)
“Premeditated and nasty. To say nothing of the vicious mugging of Canada’s legend Sidney Crosby behind the U.S. net moments later by Charlie McEvoy.”
With the Americans winning the game 3-1 on Feb. 15, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact. As we wrote in the aftermath, a slaughter was avoided.
“In the rematch for a title created just weeks before by the NHL the boys stuck to hockey. Anthem booing was restrained. Outside of an ill-advised appearance by Wayne Gretzky— now loathed for his Trump support— the emphasis was on skill. Playing largely without injured Matthew and Brady Tkachuk and McAvoy, the U.S. forced the game to OT where beleaguered goalie Craig Binnington held Canada in the game until Connor McDavid scored the game winner. “
The stunning turnaround in the series produced a similar turnaround in the Canadian federal election. Galvanized by Trump’s 51st State disrespect and exhilarated by the hockey team’s comeback, voters switched their votes in huge numbers to Carney, ignoring the abysmal record of the Liberals and their pathetic polling. From Pierre Poilievre having a 20-point lead in polls, hockey-besotted Canada flipped to award Carney a near-majority in the April 28 election.
The result stunned the Canadian political class and international critics who questioned how a single sporting event could have miraculously rescued the Liberals from themselves in such a short time.
While Canada soared because of the four Nations, a Canadian icon crashed to earth. “Perhaps the most public outcome was the now-demonization of Gretzky in Canada. Just as they had with Bobby Orr, another Canadian superstar living in America, Canadians wiped their hands of No. 99 over politics. Despite appeals from Orr, Don Cherry and others, the chance to make Gretzky a Trump proxy was too tempting.
We have been in several arguments on the subject among friends: Does Gretzky owe Canada something after carrying its hockey burden for so long? Could he have worn a Team Canada jersey? Shouldn’t he have made a statement that he backs Canada in its showdown with Trump? For now 99 is 0 in his homeland.”
Even now, months later, the events of late February have an air of disbelief around them, a shift so dramatic and so impactful on the nation that many still shake their heads. Sure, hockey wasn’t the device that blew up Canada’s politics. But it was the fuse that created a crater in the country.
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, 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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