With 5% support at the end of election night, September 20, 2021, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, was jubilant, declaring that “forever, politics in Canada will be[it] transformed”.
As absurd as it may have seemed then, these words proved prescient. Except that it would rather be the much more Machiavellian Pierre Poilievre who would be responsible for embodying and promoting libertarianism among households across the country, using “common sense” to make Canada “the freest place in the world.” “. Who can be against virtue, right?
Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris also opted for the same kind of vacuity with his “common sense revolution” in 1995, making some 45% of the electorate take the bait. Alas, like all heads of government whose political genius is matched only by their cunning, the tragic consequences of his policies on many of his fellow citizens encouraged him to wisely leave the political sphere before the opprobrium does not fall on him any more.
But it turns out that, despite everything, we are in fact already fairly free, thanks to the democratic institutions and rules that we have had the good sense to establish. So, we are free not to succumb, once again, to the same bullshit when it is possible for us to, rather, see to perfecting what we have been able to build together: a society where citizen freedom is dependent on a enlightened leadership, not laissez-faire. Our freedom is thus effective because it can be exercised, on an individual level, by virtue of a collective conscience and a common work.
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