Silent Outrage
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble”. These words from Macbeth’s Song of the Witches describes how most young Canadians feel about their prospects today.
Beneath the Silent Seething
I prompted BINGchat to describe the reputation of the typical Canadian: .
Canadians are generally known for being polite and friendly. In fact, Canada has been consistently on the list of the friendliest countries in the world 1. This reputation is connected with the predilection for saying “sorry” all the time 1
What are we “sorry” for?
If someone is frequently apologizing, it becomes annoying. It's a sign of insecurity - of not being worthy of life itself. Is Canadian culture based on an inferiority complex? If so, why?
The Trucker Convoy in early 2022 gave notice to the world that Canadians may not be as docile and maleable as many people had believed. In fact, under that polite and friendly veneer was a silent outrage ready to be unleashed.
In 2016, political outsider Donald Trump rode an election campaign all the way to the White House by appealing to the outrage of millions of Americans who had helplessly watched elites in Washington and on Wall Street destroy their hopes and dreams. Mainstreet Americans no longer believed the stories of success by that formerly “tried and true” recipe of hard work and innovation - the fabled “American Dream”.
Young Canadians today are the Mainstreet Americans of the last decade.
The ability to buy a home, raise children, afford a nice vacation or a new car, and save for retirement is now a mirage for the majority. This is significant because political elections are won by the “electoral majority” and what they have to say about Canadian society and its economy in the decades ahead will not likely be expressed in a “polite and friendly” manner.
The Trucker Convoy established a precedent.
The protestors were polite and friendly. Not so for the responses from Justin Trudeau and his advisors, the mainstream media, or the millions of critical citizens who showed no empathy or understanding of the protesters plight. It was anything but polite or friendly, and can best be described as a barrage of crass and cynical misinformation.
Silent outrage was inflamed and its soot has remained encrusted on the walls of residences across this country.
In America, the term “uniparty” is heard often to describe its two main political parties that inevitably produce the same unpopular policies regardless of which one wins the right to rule. In Canada, the Liberals, with their socialist handmaidens, the BQ and NDP, are essentially a “uniparty” too. Sadly, past Conservative administrations did little to reverse the trend of steadily increasing levels of taxation and regulatory control since the 1960s.
Survey says…
As a card-carrying Advocate for Less Government, I have asked many Canadians if they believe that we have too much government. The answer inevitably cames back with an emphatic “YES” except for one woman in Sudbury who wanted much more government (go figure). Of course, my survey results are not scientific, but even at an anecdotal level, I believe that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”.
Will Pierre Poilivre dethrone the Liberals along with the least popular Prime Minster in living memory?
Will a Conservative majority create circumstances that will douse the silent outrage which burns just below the surface of the acclaimed “polite and friendly” Canadian persona?
Or is it too much to expect that Canadians can elect a “Saviour” who can restore the hope and faith in the “Canadian Dream” to the level that once inspired men like me to dream of the“white picket fence” surrounding the family home, and achieve it.
Signs of silent outrage.
While we wait for the results of the next federal election and entertain images of Pierre Poilivre walking on water, look around you. Watch for the signs of silent outrage. They’re everywhere if you just train your eyes to see them.
