I've often wondered how populism will play out in Canada. In most of the rest of the work its usually a mix of anti immigrantion anti foreigner tough on crime rhetoric along with a nice mix leftist give money to people approach (thinking here of Jair Bolsonareo Brazil's Trump). But it seems Canada has chosen to make the unique approach open borders (irregular border crossers here's to you) more crime (Toronto and mayor John Tory) along with printing money and giving it to people. Throw in a good bit of vaccine incompetence and volia made in Canada populism.
No wonder the Conservatives can't gain any traction!
It's like Sloan's supporters didn't learn anything from the problems the Reform Party had in its early days when idiocy like this was used to paint Reformers and the Canadian Alliance as bigots that wanted to turn Canada into the Bible Belt North, even though Preston Manning made clear in his own writings that this wasn't the case. He even wrote in "The New Canada" about how he had to talk the grassroots out of nominating one particularly bad radio host as a B.C. candidate.
And why would Sloan, or anyone on the sane right, want to be associating with Neo-Nazis in the first place? We spend every Remembrance Day honouring the memories of people who made the supreme sacrifice to defeat that shit, so why are we dishonouring our fallen soldiers' sacrifice by embracing it now?
There's a reason more and more Republicans are turning against the likes of QAnon and Trump. The last thing the CPC or any provincial Conservative party needs is to be going in the opposite direction when it leads straight off a cliff.
Canadian Conservatives who court (or even tolerate) extreme, far-right Republican-style rhetoric and politics are extremely stupid to do so. Those positions can't sustainably be held by a Canadian mainstream political party because Canadian electoral institutions are fundamentally majoritarian and don't give Conservatives an unfair advantage. Yet Canadian Conservative politicians wrongly draw inspiration from the US here, without understanding that Republican-style hate-filled lunatic vitriol only works because these views are enabled and privileged by the structure of American electoral institutions.
1) The Senate empowers rural (i.e. Republican) positions in congress well out of proportion to their populations.
2) The electoral college. 100 of 538 EC votes come from states' senators and give minority views more power in presidential politics.
3) State-level gerrymandering and electoral control, particularly after the 2010 election. States run elections and draw congressional district boundaries, and in 2010 (when the last round of redistricting happened), PA/OH/WI/MI/FL were all Republican trifecta states. This let them draw congressional districts that artificially empowered Republicans at the federal House level (and in some cases they systematically disenfranchised non-Republican voters in Senate/Presidential elections, giving further advantage).
All of this explains why toxic views and people have, top to bottom, infected the Republican party. There's some common political cause but I'd argue these people/views would have been stamped out long ago if American political institutions actually punished the GOP for incubating them. These minoritarian, grievance-driven fringe positions wouldn't stand a chance if they had to compete on a level playing field.
Hopefully the Canadian Conservative party will learn this sooner or later. But first they need to get their house in order, stop fecklessly aiming to be all conservative things to all conservative people, and start playing to win.
Far right radicals in the party will be found by their actions and dealt with when needed. Kicking Sloan out sends the appropriate message to any followers. That's how you deal with it. Not by creating lists of un wanted people.
'purge the party' and 'use their skulls as paving stones' , 'Be merciless' , 'Take a few more MAGA-behatted heads'
The author can hardly be taken seriously when she espouses her concern for extremism with the use of extremist language. I can only assume that the reader's amusement was the author's intent otherwise the lack of self-awareness is remarkable.
'One day, the left may have to come to terms with radicals in their own ranks, and if that day ever comes, whoo boy it will be something to see. ' Perhaps there remains an echo of self-awareness here but this may be an overgenerous notion on my part.
We know how populism will play out in Canada. We have already seen it in multiple European countries. The left leaning parties (I am now including the CPC in this description) drive out any dissent with their relentless drive for ideological purity. The numbers of the outcast grow and their ranks swell with both respectable people and dregs alike. These ranks will form parties and gain traction, if only because they will speak to concerns the mainstream parties will not touch. Lacking awareness and forethought, the left leaning mainstream parties will carry on doggedly, unconsciously creating and empowering their own opposition. Given enough time within this dynamic, the right leaning opposition parties will gain votes and political power and in the process place some unsavory characters at the forefront of our politics.
It's ironic; the mainstream parties think that by banishing everyone to the right of Mao that they are nipping the problem in the bud, and instead they are helping it flourish.
Please be careful about libel, dear commenters. Comments deemed potentially libelous will be deleted.
I've often wondered how populism will play out in Canada. In most of the rest of the work its usually a mix of anti immigrantion anti foreigner tough on crime rhetoric along with a nice mix leftist give money to people approach (thinking here of Jair Bolsonareo Brazil's Trump). But it seems Canada has chosen to make the unique approach open borders (irregular border crossers here's to you) more crime (Toronto and mayor John Tory) along with printing money and giving it to people. Throw in a good bit of vaccine incompetence and volia made in Canada populism.
No wonder the Conservatives can't gain any traction!
It's like Sloan's supporters didn't learn anything from the problems the Reform Party had in its early days when idiocy like this was used to paint Reformers and the Canadian Alliance as bigots that wanted to turn Canada into the Bible Belt North, even though Preston Manning made clear in his own writings that this wasn't the case. He even wrote in "The New Canada" about how he had to talk the grassroots out of nominating one particularly bad radio host as a B.C. candidate.
And why would Sloan, or anyone on the sane right, want to be associating with Neo-Nazis in the first place? We spend every Remembrance Day honouring the memories of people who made the supreme sacrifice to defeat that shit, so why are we dishonouring our fallen soldiers' sacrifice by embracing it now?
There's a reason more and more Republicans are turning against the likes of QAnon and Trump. The last thing the CPC or any provincial Conservative party needs is to be going in the opposite direction when it leads straight off a cliff.
Canadian Conservatives who court (or even tolerate) extreme, far-right Republican-style rhetoric and politics are extremely stupid to do so. Those positions can't sustainably be held by a Canadian mainstream political party because Canadian electoral institutions are fundamentally majoritarian and don't give Conservatives an unfair advantage. Yet Canadian Conservative politicians wrongly draw inspiration from the US here, without understanding that Republican-style hate-filled lunatic vitriol only works because these views are enabled and privileged by the structure of American electoral institutions.
1) The Senate empowers rural (i.e. Republican) positions in congress well out of proportion to their populations.
2) The electoral college. 100 of 538 EC votes come from states' senators and give minority views more power in presidential politics.
3) State-level gerrymandering and electoral control, particularly after the 2010 election. States run elections and draw congressional district boundaries, and in 2010 (when the last round of redistricting happened), PA/OH/WI/MI/FL were all Republican trifecta states. This let them draw congressional districts that artificially empowered Republicans at the federal House level (and in some cases they systematically disenfranchised non-Republican voters in Senate/Presidential elections, giving further advantage).
All of this explains why toxic views and people have, top to bottom, infected the Republican party. There's some common political cause but I'd argue these people/views would have been stamped out long ago if American political institutions actually punished the GOP for incubating them. These minoritarian, grievance-driven fringe positions wouldn't stand a chance if they had to compete on a level playing field.
Hopefully the Canadian Conservative party will learn this sooner or later. But first they need to get their house in order, stop fecklessly aiming to be all conservative things to all conservative people, and start playing to win.
Far right radicals in the party will be found by their actions and dealt with when needed. Kicking Sloan out sends the appropriate message to any followers. That's how you deal with it. Not by creating lists of un wanted people.
'purge the party' and 'use their skulls as paving stones' , 'Be merciless' , 'Take a few more MAGA-behatted heads'
The author can hardly be taken seriously when she espouses her concern for extremism with the use of extremist language. I can only assume that the reader's amusement was the author's intent otherwise the lack of self-awareness is remarkable.
'One day, the left may have to come to terms with radicals in their own ranks, and if that day ever comes, whoo boy it will be something to see. ' Perhaps there remains an echo of self-awareness here but this may be an overgenerous notion on my part.
We know how populism will play out in Canada. We have already seen it in multiple European countries. The left leaning parties (I am now including the CPC in this description) drive out any dissent with their relentless drive for ideological purity. The numbers of the outcast grow and their ranks swell with both respectable people and dregs alike. These ranks will form parties and gain traction, if only because they will speak to concerns the mainstream parties will not touch. Lacking awareness and forethought, the left leaning mainstream parties will carry on doggedly, unconsciously creating and empowering their own opposition. Given enough time within this dynamic, the right leaning opposition parties will gain votes and political power and in the process place some unsavory characters at the forefront of our politics.
It's ironic; the mainstream parties think that by banishing everyone to the right of Mao that they are nipping the problem in the bud, and instead they are helping it flourish.