Opinion, Darren Clarke, April 24, 2025

Thanks to America digging into its’ worst inclinations and electing Donald Trump as President our Canadian Federal Election has become one defined by suddenly feeling very vulnerable. Yes, as Donald Trump and his lackeys spout off about the idea of absorbing Canada our sovereignty is being threatened in a way many people never imagined. Except, not only should we have been able to imagine it, we should have long ago seen how much Canadian sovereignty was threatened not just by America but by what tilted it into the authoritarian position it currently is in- The synthesis of wealth and power aided and abetted by media owned by corporations and billionaires. And we should have seen how much that threat comes from within Canada right now as our media, largely owned by American hedge funds and like minded Canadian corporations, has consistently created narratives to support Conservative governments. These Conservative governments have demonstrated an affinity for Republican style policies of enabling the rich at the expense of the poor. The threat is already deeply embedded in Canada to the point that right wing propagandists have diminished our ability to appreciate and reasonably discuss the realities the average Canadian faces. Each day, every day, they fill the internet media spaces, formal, social, ridiculous, with narratives designed to misinform us and make us vulnerable to being preyed upon by forces inside and out that will make us poorer and more vulnerable.

Right now, those forces are asking you to vote Conservative.

One of the current challenges voters face is supporters of each political party in Canada suggesting they are the only party that can save us while pointedly accusing their opponents of being on the verge of selling Canada out. So, why believe me telling you that the Conservative Party is the only one that will fully sell Canadian sovereignty out? Because under Pierre Poilievre they have been following the exact same blueprint that put the Republican party in charge in the United States. A power the Republican Party has used to act like, as Sarah Kendzior brilliantly put it during Trump’s last stint as President, “a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government,” transparently working with sociopaths like Elon Musk, effectively gutting America and selling it off for parts while creating instability that, may appear to be madness on the surface, but look closer and you can see rich insiders getting richer via that market volatility. At the provincial level, at the federal level, serving only the interests of the rich is all the Conservatives have ever done. Take former Prime Minister Stephen Harper who is simultaneously still very active in the party and the International Democratic Union, which supports right wing parties across the globe including all manner of authoritarian leaders. The Conservative have lent themselves entirely to being a weapon for transnational corporations and interests in exchange for power, position, and the many benefits they reap from enabling the rich. Those transnational interests can be summed up easily- Greed. And if you are looking for a conspiracy theory that’s the one that negatively impacts your life the most. Nothing else is close.

Why are your rents so high? Greed. Why are your wages low? Greed. Why are we losing environmental protections for our water, air and land? Greed. Why is healthcare becoming more expensive and less accessible? Greed. Greedy people relentlessly want more stuff. They get that at the expense of the health and well being of all life around them. They are fundamentally destructive psychopaths ferociously determined to live the fairytale of unlimited economic growth within an ecosystem that has hard limits of what it can provide. When you hear Conservatives praising deregulation and smaller government, know that what they are saying is they will disassemble government because it has the capacity to hinder greedy people being greedy at our expense. As we continue to look at how the synthesis of wealth/power/propaganda functions we see further harm to Canadians.

Here’s the thing now- These greedy interests can’t get the power to hurt Canadians by transparently asking for permission to do it. They need a political party to enable them. That political party can’t win an election by saying, “We will only represent the interests of the rich.” They can only be elected by talking about something else and they need a media that is working in concert with that messaging to be successful.  Which brings us to the Conservative Party and a toxic mix of media supports- bonkers conspiracy sites like Rebel News, traditional media they have purchased i.e. Postmedia group- National Post, Toronto Sun, etc. and other American hedge fund owned entities like the Toronto Star, and finally there’s Conservative PR man Jeff Ballingall’s empire of misinformation- Canada Proud, Ontario Proud, etc. All spewing out hate and creating narratives that often lead the limited Canadian corporate news entities like CTV and Global into picking up these narratives and running with them thus both further entrenching them in Canadian discussions and worse, distorting how impactful or not impactful things are, i.e. While Postmedia outlets railed day in, day out, about Justin Trudeau’s every real, and most often imagined, failure, their silence on the many scandals of the likes of Doug Ford and Danielle Smith has been absolute. This kind of distortion is why Ford and Smith were re-elected easily and Justin Trudeau had to re-sign. An American hedge fund newspaper that employs right wing hacks playing its’ part in chasing a centrist-party leader from power while ensuring all radical right wing leaders (the only kind of right wing leaders there is at this point) maintain power.

This is where we see the other damaging impacts to the greed that undermines Canadian sovereignty- They flood the zone with so many garbage narratives that it moves the goalposts on us. It makes it difficult to appreciate the realities of the Canadian political world and worse, normalizes often toxic talking points like, “Fuck Trudeau!” The ironically named, “Freedom Convoy,” of course being a cautionary tale of how radical right wing forces can undermine Canadian sovereignty and the ultimate symbol of how much internal and external forces have been successful in rage farming Canadians. Who were the number one media amplifiers of the Convoy? Russian State Media and Fox News. The convoy, supported by the Conservative Party and its’ various media enablers, ended up being a definitive testament to how easily a significant portion of Canadians can be inflamed into being resolutely angry and misinformed, ready to block bridges, overtake Ottawa and in the case of Coutts Crossing, take up arms against their own best interests.

And again, once enough Canadians are turned into foaming at the mouth attack dogs that can be pointed in any direction to attack, it becomes almost impossible to have constructive public discourse. Moreover, the fact the Conservatives look to distract from their support of the rich over the poor by tapping into bias against vulnerable communities results in those communities being even more vulnerable. Where good governments look to bridge divides, to embrace differences, the Conservatives look to sow fear and loathing of otherness. To distract you from the very real threats they pose to the average Canadian they present nonsense like bogus immigration scares and the great WOKE boogie man that leads to immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and really, anyone not white and male, being more likely to have to face prejudice and violence in our communities. These vulnerable portions of the community experience something we only recently got a taste of when the psychopath who runs the United States started lashing out at Canada for no reason other than he thought he could. Which brings us back to- Vulnerable.

Someone once said the easiest way to vote is to simply understand which party or parties, will support vulnerable people the most. And that makes a ton of sense given, first, the viewpoint is fundamentally kind, and second, because sooner or later we are all vulnerable. It’s important we reject the Conservative Party because by their own design, who they represent, how they wield power, makes Canada, everyone and everything within it, poorer and more vulnerable.  

The important takeaway here is not to suggest Canadians have a perfect option when they go to vote at the end of this month but, in terms of maintaining our sovereignty in particular, we have one party that should be a hard pass. If we do not begin to reject the internal right wing forces that are looking to undermine the Canadian community via corrupted media sources, privatization, suppressing wages, diminishing the integrity of our health care system, undercutting our environmental protections, and especially looking to inflame hate and prejudice against vulnerable parts of our community we cannot begin to protect ourselves from outside forces.