The word ‘woke’ is not all that new. Its use is taking a roller-coaster ride. Young people tend to use it in the sense of becoming aware of societal errors of the past. Right-wing religious writers have usurped the word ‘wokeness’ to be a label for a supposably baseless new religion attempting to supplant the traditional Christian religions. It must have cost many of us some puzzlement when conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accused the Trudeau government of entering a radical woke coalition with the new democrats.
It was this suggestion that there could be a radical wokeness that left me confused. There was nothing new in the arrangement between the two parties. Our present prime minister’s father and the NDP’s David Lewis had entered into a similar arrangement in the 1970s.
I suppose, if I had cared, I could have contacted the conservative leader’s office to find out what he meant. I wrote it off as just a weak attempt to impress a younger audience. I expect it is just another example of Mr. Poilievre’s uncaring glibness when attacking others.
When political observers write about the relative strengths of the party leaders, they tend to denigrate Trudeau’s grasp of finance while giving Poilievre a pass. They even hope that finance minister Christa Freeland can fill the void. They tend to forget the wild swings Poilievre makes at subjects such as cryptocurrencies and the governance of the Bank of Canada.
Whether Freeland is capable of complimenting Trudeau’s strong advocacy in controlling climate change and providing for the social needs of Canadians has yet to be determined. Whether there is a need for her to backstop Trudeau in the way Paul Martin supported Jean Chrétien, I doubt it. How soon we forget that Paul Martin’s far right actions as finance minister in the 1990s cost the liberal party dearly. Many of us progressive liberals never forgave Paul for his right-wing attack on social spending. It cost the liberal party the loss to Stephen Harper. Canadians seemed to say: Why vote for a right-wing liberal when you can get the real thing with Harper?
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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