Canada is crying out for an anti-woke leader

Canada’s hated prime minister announced he was resigning last month. Most Canadians rejoiced at the apparent end of Justin Trudeau’s reign. His Liberal Party was facing death. Support had fallen to just 16 per cent by the end of December – an all time low.

In truth, Trudeau had not actually resigned. He merely announced he planned to resign. He was aware he was facing a non-confidence motion, which would force him to resign and force an election, which Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives were practically guaranteed to win. To avoid this, he froze parliament. He was essentially holding Canada hostage so he could buy time. This gave him two and a half months, approximately, until parliament would resume in March. An election is now not likely to happen until October, though what might happen in the meantime is concerning.

With parliament’s hands tied, Trudeau and the Liberal Party gave themselves an opportunity to regain some of the popularity they had lost over the past few years. The public had grown sick of his woke platitudes. He constantly claimed that he is the only politician standing up for women’s rights, while simultaneously insisting that ‘transwomen are women’. His approach to Covid-19 and treatment of the truckers’ protests were shockingly authoritarian. He has also destroyed the economy, with many Canadians no longer able to afford to buy a home or even groceries.

The timing of Trudeau’s suspension of parliament was convenient. He knew Donald Trump’s tariff threat was incoming. The Liberals saw this as an opportunity to create a new enemy in America, pointing the finger at Trump as they fashioned themselves as patriotic defenders of Canadian sovereignty. ‘Team Canada’ became their mantra. The flag that was denounced as fascist when it was waved by the truckers was suddenly embraced by Trudeau and his supporters.

This seems to be working, too. The media have reported excitedly about a sudden jump in the polls. The Liberals have shot up, cutting down Poilievre’s massive lead. It’s hard to say how reflective this is of the country at large, but Poilievre is now faced with a challenge he may not have anticipated.

The country is rallying to the Liberal Party’s side in the trade war with America, or at least it seems that way judging by what’s trending online and the boos that have greeted the American national anthem at sporting events. It might therefore be tempting for Poilievre to join in on the apparent anti-MAGA sentiment. But there is good reason Trump won in America and there is good reason Poilievre had previously gained such a big lead in the polls: the people want change – big change. Not the symbolic change that’s all too often on offer, where a new party comes in and tweaks a few things, but essentially continues like business as usual.

Poilievre initially earned his lead not just by default or due to the widespread hatred of the current government. It was also because he ran a populist campaign and had gone against the woke grain. He didn’t play it safe. He promised to defund the CBC, the national broadcaster. He came out in opposition to giving puberty blockers to kids. He supported the truckers’ convoy, even as the entire media and political class was attacking them as terrorists. He has also gone after the Liberal Party’s nonsensical carbon tax, which adds a significant cost to what individual Canadians pay on things like gas and indoor heating, with his ‘axe the tax’ slogan. Now, in response to the Liberal Party’s attempts at patriotic rebranding, it appears Poilievre has shifted to a ‘Canada First’ theme.

Is there more Poilievre can do? Trump won on a platform of big change. He sensed that Americans were done with the status quo and went whole hog in that direction. While Canadians might not be quite as bold or as brash as Americans, I believe they are ready for something different as well. They too are tired of being silenced, censored, ignored and insulted by the political elites and media class. They are tired of not being able to afford to buy meat. They are sick of seeing almost half their income go back to the government via taxes, while millions of dollars of funding is put towards nonsensical LGBT endeavours, like the ‘Queer Joy Photovoice Project’. They are sick of being told they are bigots for not wanting men in their daughters’ changing rooms. They want a prime minister who listens to them, speaks to them and addresses real issues, not the elite’s ideological priorities.

One of the first things Trump did when he got back into office last month was to sign several executive orders, clearly and unapologetically taking on gender-identity ideology. No more males competing in women’s sports. No more men in women’s bathrooms, prisons or any other female-only space. And no more sterilising and mutilating kids under the guise of ‘gender medicine’.

These moves were celebrated by a majority. It was surprising to see the leader of a nation come down so hard on gender-identity ideology. But let’s be real: saying that men aren’t women, that kids are never ‘born in the wrong body’, and that women and girls deserve safe spaces free from predators and perverts is not radical or extreme – it’s rational.

Poilievre hasn’t ducked talking about these questions, but he has been reluctant to use the same straight-talking language. Where Trump’s executive order on women’s spaces says sex is ‘grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality’, Poilievre says he is ‘only aware of two genders’. And while the Canadian Conservative leader has since come around to banning puberty blockers, he was still uncertain about calling out child transitioning as recently as 2023.

If Poilievre were to take a stronger stand on these issues and put them at the forefront of his campaign, he could win by a landslide. Despite appearances, most Canadians are not insane. They know just as well as anyone that sex cannot be altered, and that to say so is not hateful. They need a prime minister who is prepared to stand with them.

Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and the host of The Same Drugs podcast.