The left is weak, the right is mean and the middle is drifting
Does anybody here know how to play this game?
My Québécois readers will enjoy this trip down memory lane with Dany Vervaine. It’s a caricature of a ditzy chamomile leftie from a different century that’s still funny today. Maybe my lovely friends on the left should take this into consideration as they move towards electing a new leader and perhaps managing not to become extinct.
Did you know there was a leadership race on the left? Can’t blame you. If you heard about it, it was probably about the “cis” thing, which you may or may not have followed.
Look, I’m about as woke as they get and I do applaud the NDP’s effort to make the race friendly to humans who aren’t straight white guys. But man. I mean, person. Does it have to be this painful?
I am on the side that’s fighting the rise of right-wing autocrats (read the book!). But y’all ain’t helping. You’re so focused on culture war issues and speech policing that you’re losing everyone who’s not on the extreme left. And while I realize you suck at math about as much as I do, let me remind you that the number of Canadians who aren’t on the extreme left is “a hell of a lot.”
For instance, the millions of Canadians who work in the private sector, in industries that have either been hit by the world’s most pointless trade wars or just regular industries that are seeing modest growth.
Expect this piece of data to be part of the conversation for the next few weeks at least:
The federal public service workforce grew to 357,965 employees in 2025, an increase of about 40 per cent — or about 100,000 people — since 2015, according to government numbers.
You don’t have to be a paleo conservative to see a number like this and know it likely doesn’t sit well with the private sector working bee who hasn’t had a raise in six years and doesn’t have job security or anything resembling a solid retirement plan.
I know for a fact that federal public servants are good people who work hard, but at the same time who here will claim with a straight face that the quality of our public services has increased by 40 percent in the last decade?
Pierre Poilievre should have his mouth washed out with soap not just for shaming overweight people but for being unforgivably gauche with his metaphors.
“The government has become a big fat man, and the private sector is a skinny man carrying that fat man up an increasingly steep hill, and that skinnier man is about to collapse under the weight of the gargantuan Carney Liberal government. It’s time to put that government on a diet,” Poilievre said.
Let’s just say the mood in the country isn’t for yet another high-profile discussion on gender diversity. There’s still that housing crisis to deal with. And youth unemployment. Health care, too. You know, the basics.
At the complete opposite of Vervaine is Pierre Poilievre’s resolutely anti-woke persona. And in the middle, the Carney bunch with its big daddy energy. You know, what in the old legal tradition in Quebec we used to call “le bon père de famille” or the good family man. This used to be a legal standard, absolutely. And Carney seems to come straight out of the pre-reform Civil Code.
It’s working for him… so far. He comes across as sure-footed and confident, not cocky or arrogant. But he’s going to have to come up with real results soon, because voters aren’t necessarily going to be patient much longer.
Earlier today his government announced a series of measures that were billed as being on the biggish side. Scrap the EV mandate, buy Canadian, help targeted industries. A lobbyist’s wet dream.
No, I don’t hate lobbyists. They perform an essential function. But I’m here to remind anyone who might have forgotten that the affordability crisis FOR NORMAL PEOPLE WITH AVERAGE INCOMES was one hell of an important issue during the last election.
It still is. The unmissable David Coletto is out with numbers showing Canadian voters still care a lot about affordability, housing, inflation and all those pocketbook issues, more even than the Trump menace. Here’s the piece I would totally focus on if I were advising Carney (my emphasis):
Six in ten Canadians (61%) believe the federal government is paying too much attention on Donald Trump when urgent domestic challenges – like housing, healthcare, and rising costs – need solutions, while just one in three (33%) think Ottawa is focusing the right amount of attention to Trump. (…)
This concern cuts across demographics. Younger Canadians are especially critical, with 70% of those aged 18–44 saying the government is too focused on Donald Trump. Even among Liberal voters, more than half (51%) believe their government is distracted by Trump when pressing domestic problems remain unresolved (compared to 45% who believe it is the right amount of attention).
The danger for NDPers is that they always sound so nice but way too far to the left to be a practical option for government. The Conservatives’ weak point is they come across as mean bullies with terribly awful positions on women and the gender diverse. The Liberals are good at swimming in the middle but they always lose when they’re perceived to be too arrogant and not concerned enough with the plight of the average citizen.
So far Mark Carney is retaining his support but if he wants to keep it past Thanksgiving he’s going to have to show he understands what people want. He did well during the campaign, when most people wanted a knowledgeable and skilled adult to stand up to Trump. That’s not what the average voter wants now. Time for the prime minister to show us he can pivot.
On a completely different note, I wrote a column in the Ottawa Citizen about a beautiful intergenerational program coming soon at Perley Health that I wish was replicated all over the place. Segregating humans by age is one of the stupidest ways to organize ourselves. It’s not because we’re used to it that we should keep doing it.