My Take | Canada has become the ‘wokest’ country
- Justin Trudeau has turned late father and prime minister Pierre’s liberalism on its head, resulting in transgenderism for children, easy drug access for addicts, state-assisted suicide for the non-terminally ill and censorship against the unenlightened
When people compare Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with father Pierre, the son almost never measures up. Perhaps that isn’t fair. After all, the old man won four general elections; established diplomatic relations with China in 1970, well before the United States; made Canada count in international politics; defeated French Quebec separatism; made multiculturalism and bilingualism official; and formed a new constitution for the country.
How can you beat that? To be sure, his strong federalism laid the seeds for the subsequent provincial discontent, if not rebellion, especially with the resource-rich western ones.
After almost eight years in power, though, I am beginning to think the son may well be as consequential as Dad, but not in a good way. A new poll shows 56 per cent of Canadians think he should resign ahead of the next election, in less than two years.
Justin has taken his father’s progressive politics into extreme “woke” territories. It’s becoming a dystopian nightmare that is likely to be the future of other Western societies, though Britain is already there.
While Trudeau Snr liberalised divorce laws, decriminalised homosexuality and legalised abortion, Justin has brought gender ideology into early schools, relaxed laws regulating dangerous drugs and police enforcement, and started to heavily regulate free speech, including public protests. Meanwhile, the state will help people commit suicide on the flimsiest of medical or psychological excuses.
In the westernmost province of British Columbia, it’s perfectly legal to possess 2.5 grams of hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine and fentanyl. More provinces are expected to follow. In many Canadian cities, you are more likely to be ticketed by the police for drinking alcohol in public than shooting up hard drugs. In downtown Vancouver, drug addicts roam many streets like zombies, while others often bend down, immobile, like folded tables because of a fentanyl-induced trance. Hastings Street is the epicentre of Vancouver’s drug and homelessness crisis. It rivals any urban decay in many American cities.