MCGA — Make Canada Great Again
Yeah, Not Nearly As New As You Think
Oh, Canada, our home and native land. The land of ice, snow and the perpetually polite. Our reputation for being the peacekeepers, the lovers of the common good and for a quiet resolve precedes us. We have free health care and we’re so very nice and understanding. Our reputation is so well known that when I was in law school, a fellow student complained that what she hated about Canada, after having lived in the US is how we never protest; there was never any contention, never any argument. We sat up here on frozen ponds, fishing poles in hand, singing Kumbaya.
That’s an outsider’s view. There’s always been shit going down in the Great White North. There’s always been a right-wing, MAGA-esque element in our vast land. It just took a bunch of truckers and Covid mandates to expose it to the rest of the world.
The Freedom Convoy in our nation’s capital is old news by now. For an overview of it do check out EllenEastwood’s story. It’s very well written and it inspired the thoughts that follow:
I’ll preface my comments by saying I’m all for the right to peaceful assembly. It’s guaranteed in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms (section 2(c)). But for good or ill, there are elements of the protest, intended or not that are showing the ugly truth, racism and right-wing extremism exists among the snow-capped vistas and has for a long time.
But that’s the thing. This isn’t new. Ask any person of colour, first of all. But beyond that, it’s been kind of out in the open for decades, at least to us. It’s just that few few people were paying attention
In the mid-’80s through the mid to late ’90s, in eastern Canada, where I was born and raised, The Confederation of Regions Party (COR) became quite popular with their far-right ideology. The policies of this now-defunct party can be found here:
Their big beef was “official bilingualism,” according to them. They were huge in my home province of New Brunswick:
Do note, those of Francophone ancestry have been present in Canada for ages, but yeah, fu*k ’em, right?
Then, federally, there was The Reform Party of Canada, a right-wing populist movement out of the west led by Preston Manning. They were on the scene through the 90s. They called for such things as a return to capital punishment, in fact, they were the only federal party to suggest it. Of course, they strongly opposed extending marriage to the LGBTQ+ community and favoured assimilation over multiculturalism.
Their Blue Paper outlined things such as favouring immigrants that could contribute to the bottom line and fit right in immediately (source, Reform Party Blue Paper, 1988,pp 22–23).
I remember my parents feeling worried back then as racist, xenophobic, homophobic sentiments and an isolationist attitude seemed to take hold in the country. But honestly, though it was bold, and pretty widely known in Canada, it seems nobody else noticed. I could go on and on, but you get the point.
Oh, and then there was Quebec back in 2019 and their controversial Bill 21 which prohibited the wearing of any religious symbols (including clothing) for various workers, including teachers. You can read it here if you want:
http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type=5&file=2019C12A.PDF
The new Canadian far-right populist movement isn’t new at all. It’s been here all along. It’s just been emboldened and become louder.
Just like anything else in life, while the US and the MAGA crowd were screaming at the top of their lungs south of the border, Canada’s far-right was by comparison, quieter, seemingly gentler. But that's the thing, it’s the quiet ones you have to watch.
