Even a great libertarian such as Hayek said there was a place for government to manage disasters, which this pandemic has been, No one has looked good in the pandemic except the Atlantic provinces, but at least Legault learned soe thing after the first 2 waves. Ford, Moe, Palliser and especially Kenney learned nothing. Kenney in fact almost looks like he was trying to sabotage the health care system in AB. Not without merit.
I too, as a late Boomer, have major concerns about where the country is headed and bigger concerns about the lack of leadership in the so called major parties.
Yes, Ms. Gerson is brutal in this piece but the honest situation is brutal. Thanks for this editorial piece.
Enjoyed the read. Mildly worried that Ms Gerson is prematurely transitioning into a grumpy curmudgeon but that might just be because she is right. It’s Over.
So, so good. Bleak and accurate. We Boomers were born at the right time. Society was objectively worse in the Fifties and Sixties, but there was hope and things got done. The past fifteen years have been like sinking in sludge through a cold, dark, fog.
While I value libertarian contrarians, at the very least to expand the imaginative context of debate, the current pandemic seems like a less than durable basis to grow the PPC as a libertarian movement.
The current rise of the PPC seems less the rise of political and philosophical libertarians, than the knee-jerk reaction of folks who find their experience of normal abruptly interrupted.
PPC popularity has jumped from 2% to 6% in 2 months suggesting the 2% may have been core PPC conservative libertarians while the recent 4% are anti-vaccine passport tourists.
It strikes me that the core of the PPC dilemma is confusion over libertarianism regarding belief versus behaviour.
In a democratic society which values individual freedom, folks are free to believe what they want. They are free to express that belief as a symbolic act of free speech. However, they are not free to do whatever they want. Unfortunately this is a distinction too subtle for some.
Virtually every time a democratic society imposes restrictions on individuals out of some concern for public safety, resistance is aroused which attempts to justify itself by referencing individual freedom.
Traditional libertarianism, ex., following the idyllic myth of Jeffersonian democracy as an era of freedom loving gentleman farmers, typically presumes a high degree of self-sufficiency. So Emerson's writing on self-reliance while Thoreau is off in his cabin in the woods. However, individuals in modern societies are so dependent on the output of others, for anything and everything, that the confusion of freedom of belief and speech with that of social conduct borders on delusion.
Presumably this is the affliction of some folks storming hospital entrances in a fit of rage because they can't do what they want and 'normally' have been able to do, pre-pandemic. While this tiny minority may be capable of reckless acts, they are unlikely to sway the great majority who simply want to live safe, comfortable lives. So given the pandemic disruption, the vast majority have lined up patiently for vaccines.
Those few who rage, as if their rage will scare off the virus, wake the masses from their apparent delusion, and reveal the hoax that is modernity, are left to plead 'beam us up Scotty!' And wait...for Jesus!
I believe Jen Gerson has some awful truths in her words that we, as Canadians, must grapple with. I am of the same mind set and have no faith in our leadership regardless who wins the election. I can only hope and pray that when the next election comes that we have someone worthy of our vote. She has written a brilliant piece.
That last paragraph is exactly why I voted Conservative for the first time in decades. If we moderate Liberals will *never* swing to vote blue then there is no incentive to appeal to us and you might as well go hard right. However, if Romney had been elected in 2012, there would have been no Trump. Hopefully if O'Toole is elected it will prevent a similar catastrophe, even if he's not the best person for the job.
I, too, wish the election hadn't been called, yet the constant harping about Trudeau is grating - and I'm a Saskie! The Trudeau gov't secured vaccines in an uncertain time & brought us through a pandemic in spite of incompetent premiers, negotiated the USMCA agreement with a (very) difficult President, passed the assault weapons bans, entered the Paris climate agreement and instituted a workable carbon tax. Deriding Trudeau & eastern Canada without offering workable policies is not enough to get my vote.
I was a lifelong NDP but although Singh may be likeable, his pie in the sky proposals are too much. Then there's the matter of running in a different province, let alone your own riding, to be elected. I know it's been done countless timesby leaders but is a bit hard to take from the supposedly ethical NDP. HIs treatment of Erin Weir (the incumbent in a riding near me) was a shameless ploy to get female approval. Likeable is not enough.
No one, least of all me, knows what will happen in SK & AB in the future, but the current political climate and mean-spirited division doesn't bode well for the future.
1. You’ve conveniently forgotten that Stephen Harper closed our only vaccine manufacturer stating we could just buy them from other countries. You’ve neglected to mention that vaccines were administered ahead of schedule by 2 months or more. It would have been interesting to see MPs like Michelle R-G & her ilk if Canada had given the vaccines to foreign countries ahead of Canadians. You appear to have missed that we are now donating to other countries.
2. No one took cheap shots at Trump, Freeland was a class act & the tariffs would likely have gone on anyway as it was “America First”. Only when manufacturers realized they did not have sufficient aluminum did the US pull back –horror you can’t produce enough beer cans.
3. I read all of Jen’s articles and am a paid up member of The Line, doesn’t mean I have to agree with all that she states. On guns, any increment towards reducing gun ownership is a win. I live in a violent city and we could do with far fewer guns. (BTW – don’t appreciate your call that I’ve acted indecently.)
4. Economists & climatologists support the Liberal plan ahead of all others. Once again, parties pass what they can & living in one of the province that threw away our money for a Supreme Court challenge, I can say that any step towards reducing carbon in the environment is useful. Perhaps in the next Parliament it can be increased.
5. Now the gloves are off – Pierre Elliott Trudeau brought home Canada’s constitution with an amending formula (no easy feat, ask Brian Mulroney), he got rid of legislation making homosexuality & abortion illegal, and he faced down the FLQ terrorists. (You may recall that Harper hid in a closet when a gunman threatened Parliamentarians, not exactly equivalent but a contrast nonetheless). The country was not divided, Alberta was up in arms because dAlberta id not want to support the rest of Canada with cheaper oil, hardly a divided country. BTW I’m a Saskie so don’t even think about calling me an eastern Canadian who doesn’t understand the western psyche, I understand it too well.
I'm inclined to agree the election appears to have been about nothing. No big ballot questions, dozens of boutique offerings, with all the major parties overfishing in the soft centre, where policy differences are replaced by celebrity marketing wars.
In that regard, the public does not really get to have a say in choosing a direction because distinct substantive policy directions are not on offer.
This may explain the surging PPC running against the mainstream consensus. However, given that their 6% is spread so thin, it appears they may not gain a single seat. So, we get another 2 years of Lib minority government with either the Bloc or the NDP propping them up.
However, I don't see Canada falling off a cliff as a result. Just more muddling through where polling rather than elections steers government behaviour.
Need an editor. And like the last piece, the CPC will not move the extreme right, will not get rid of O'Toole. And will not split. That was already done, and gave us us 3 liberal majorities.
Yes, I have concerns as well. Indeed the Liberals never live up to the expectations they create, which is sad. However, it seems like this, and most critiques of JT and the Liberal peccadillos seem to ignore that one could say almost the same things about previous Conservative governments and their leaders, Harper being a good example. It seems that we tend to forget during each election that the politicos are doing pretty much what those of previous elections have done. Seems kind of naive to pounce anew on what has been standard operating procedure in the past and be appalled as though it is something newly abhorrent.
Calgary had golden ages from 1973-1982, and late nineties to 2014. And the whole post-war era was relatively high growth up to 1973, the Oil Crisis for the rest of the world was Awesomeness Years for Calgary.
The 1982 oil crash that stimulated the western economies and helped Reagan win '84, was disastrous for Calgary: 5 pages of dollar-sales of underwater houses in The Herald (mortgage rates were 14%), unfinished buildings downtown. It went on and on: Dome Petroleum collapsed in 1986, I think - the bad years were a whole decade.
Even a great libertarian such as Hayek said there was a place for government to manage disasters, which this pandemic has been, No one has looked good in the pandemic except the Atlantic provinces, but at least Legault learned soe thing after the first 2 waves. Ford, Moe, Palliser and especially Kenney learned nothing. Kenney in fact almost looks like he was trying to sabotage the health care system in AB. Not without merit.
I too, as a late Boomer, have major concerns about where the country is headed and bigger concerns about the lack of leadership in the so called major parties.
Yes, Ms. Gerson is brutal in this piece but the honest situation is brutal. Thanks for this editorial piece.
Ms Gerson keeps raising the editorial bar higher. Such a clear view with cutting honesty, best piece yet, thanks.
Enjoyed the read. Mildly worried that Ms Gerson is prematurely transitioning into a grumpy curmudgeon but that might just be because she is right. It’s Over.
So, so good. Bleak and accurate. We Boomers were born at the right time. Society was objectively worse in the Fifties and Sixties, but there was hope and things got done. The past fifteen years have been like sinking in sludge through a cold, dark, fog.
thanks again for articulating what I feel...and helping to explain why two of my three kids have chose to work elsewhere in the world to get ahead
While I value libertarian contrarians, at the very least to expand the imaginative context of debate, the current pandemic seems like a less than durable basis to grow the PPC as a libertarian movement.
The current rise of the PPC seems less the rise of political and philosophical libertarians, than the knee-jerk reaction of folks who find their experience of normal abruptly interrupted.
PPC popularity has jumped from 2% to 6% in 2 months suggesting the 2% may have been core PPC conservative libertarians while the recent 4% are anti-vaccine passport tourists.
It strikes me that the core of the PPC dilemma is confusion over libertarianism regarding belief versus behaviour.
In a democratic society which values individual freedom, folks are free to believe what they want. They are free to express that belief as a symbolic act of free speech. However, they are not free to do whatever they want. Unfortunately this is a distinction too subtle for some.
Virtually every time a democratic society imposes restrictions on individuals out of some concern for public safety, resistance is aroused which attempts to justify itself by referencing individual freedom.
Traditional libertarianism, ex., following the idyllic myth of Jeffersonian democracy as an era of freedom loving gentleman farmers, typically presumes a high degree of self-sufficiency. So Emerson's writing on self-reliance while Thoreau is off in his cabin in the woods. However, individuals in modern societies are so dependent on the output of others, for anything and everything, that the confusion of freedom of belief and speech with that of social conduct borders on delusion.
Presumably this is the affliction of some folks storming hospital entrances in a fit of rage because they can't do what they want and 'normally' have been able to do, pre-pandemic. While this tiny minority may be capable of reckless acts, they are unlikely to sway the great majority who simply want to live safe, comfortable lives. So given the pandemic disruption, the vast majority have lined up patiently for vaccines.
Those few who rage, as if their rage will scare off the virus, wake the masses from their apparent delusion, and reveal the hoax that is modernity, are left to plead 'beam us up Scotty!' And wait...for Jesus!
I believe Jen Gerson has some awful truths in her words that we, as Canadians, must grapple with. I am of the same mind set and have no faith in our leadership regardless who wins the election. I can only hope and pray that when the next election comes that we have someone worthy of our vote. She has written a brilliant piece.
That last paragraph is exactly why I voted Conservative for the first time in decades. If we moderate Liberals will *never* swing to vote blue then there is no incentive to appeal to us and you might as well go hard right. However, if Romney had been elected in 2012, there would have been no Trump. Hopefully if O'Toole is elected it will prevent a similar catastrophe, even if he's not the best person for the job.
Thank you again for articulating so well that which keeps me up at night.
Great piece! As a boomer living in Calgary, I can relate to your conflicted libertarian soul.
“Arrogance is the shadow of mediocre talent” Brilliant! Explains why you are not arrogant Jen. Great, thoughtful insights!
Oh I'm sometimes arrogant. I'm also sometimes mediocre.
I, too, wish the election hadn't been called, yet the constant harping about Trudeau is grating - and I'm a Saskie! The Trudeau gov't secured vaccines in an uncertain time & brought us through a pandemic in spite of incompetent premiers, negotiated the USMCA agreement with a (very) difficult President, passed the assault weapons bans, entered the Paris climate agreement and instituted a workable carbon tax. Deriding Trudeau & eastern Canada without offering workable policies is not enough to get my vote.
I was a lifelong NDP but although Singh may be likeable, his pie in the sky proposals are too much. Then there's the matter of running in a different province, let alone your own riding, to be elected. I know it's been done countless timesby leaders but is a bit hard to take from the supposedly ethical NDP. HIs treatment of Erin Weir (the incumbent in a riding near me) was a shameless ploy to get female approval. Likeable is not enough.
No one, least of all me, knows what will happen in SK & AB in the future, but the current political climate and mean-spirited division doesn't bode well for the future.
In reply:
1. You’ve conveniently forgotten that Stephen Harper closed our only vaccine manufacturer stating we could just buy them from other countries. You’ve neglected to mention that vaccines were administered ahead of schedule by 2 months or more. It would have been interesting to see MPs like Michelle R-G & her ilk if Canada had given the vaccines to foreign countries ahead of Canadians. You appear to have missed that we are now donating to other countries.
2. No one took cheap shots at Trump, Freeland was a class act & the tariffs would likely have gone on anyway as it was “America First”. Only when manufacturers realized they did not have sufficient aluminum did the US pull back –horror you can’t produce enough beer cans.
3. I read all of Jen’s articles and am a paid up member of The Line, doesn’t mean I have to agree with all that she states. On guns, any increment towards reducing gun ownership is a win. I live in a violent city and we could do with far fewer guns. (BTW – don’t appreciate your call that I’ve acted indecently.)
4. Economists & climatologists support the Liberal plan ahead of all others. Once again, parties pass what they can & living in one of the province that threw away our money for a Supreme Court challenge, I can say that any step towards reducing carbon in the environment is useful. Perhaps in the next Parliament it can be increased.
5. Now the gloves are off – Pierre Elliott Trudeau brought home Canada’s constitution with an amending formula (no easy feat, ask Brian Mulroney), he got rid of legislation making homosexuality & abortion illegal, and he faced down the FLQ terrorists. (You may recall that Harper hid in a closet when a gunman threatened Parliamentarians, not exactly equivalent but a contrast nonetheless). The country was not divided, Alberta was up in arms because dAlberta id not want to support the rest of Canada with cheaper oil, hardly a divided country. BTW I’m a Saskie so don’t even think about calling me an eastern Canadian who doesn’t understand the western psyche, I understand it too well.
I'm inclined to agree the election appears to have been about nothing. No big ballot questions, dozens of boutique offerings, with all the major parties overfishing in the soft centre, where policy differences are replaced by celebrity marketing wars.
In that regard, the public does not really get to have a say in choosing a direction because distinct substantive policy directions are not on offer.
This may explain the surging PPC running against the mainstream consensus. However, given that their 6% is spread so thin, it appears they may not gain a single seat. So, we get another 2 years of Lib minority government with either the Bloc or the NDP propping them up.
However, I don't see Canada falling off a cliff as a result. Just more muddling through where polling rather than elections steers government behaviour.
Need an editor. And like the last piece, the CPC will not move the extreme right, will not get rid of O'Toole. And will not split. That was already done, and gave us us 3 liberal majorities.
I did notice the accent was missing in "rosé", but I was going to be polite and not mention it
Glad you can predict the future.
That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. (Also not true. We all need editors.) jg.
Yes, I have concerns as well. Indeed the Liberals never live up to the expectations they create, which is sad. However, it seems like this, and most critiques of JT and the Liberal peccadillos seem to ignore that one could say almost the same things about previous Conservative governments and their leaders, Harper being a good example. It seems that we tend to forget during each election that the politicos are doing pretty much what those of previous elections have done. Seems kind of naive to pounce anew on what has been standard operating procedure in the past and be appalled as though it is something newly abhorrent.
Calgary had golden ages from 1973-1982, and late nineties to 2014. And the whole post-war era was relatively high growth up to 1973, the Oil Crisis for the rest of the world was Awesomeness Years for Calgary.
The 1982 oil crash that stimulated the western economies and helped Reagan win '84, was disastrous for Calgary: 5 pages of dollar-sales of underwater houses in The Herald (mortgage rates were 14%), unfinished buildings downtown. It went on and on: Dome Petroleum collapsed in 1986, I think - the bad years were a whole decade.
"Fifty Year Golden Age", indeed.