There was an analysis piece published over the weekend that wondered about why Erin O’Toole is talking about “social experiments” as part of his rejection of the Throne Speech, but while the piece went on to look at polling data and so on, it merely said that O’Toole didn’t exactly say which part of it was the “social experiment.” Of course, you’d have to have been living under a rock to not realise that small-c conservatives have been using this language for a while, particularly when it comes to things like gender equality.
Much of the thinking around this language is that the “social experiment” is the disruption of the so-called “natural” state of family life – that women in the workforce and childcare outside of the home is going to be some kind of sociological destabilizing force – and much of that line of reasoning also goes hand-in-hand with some garden-variety homophobic nonsense about same-sex marriage somehow “devaluing” regular marriage (as though straight people weren’t already doing that on their own). And let’s face it – the Throne Speech was heavy on inclusive growth and the need for childcare as part of its main themes. Of course, this isn’t really “experimental” at this point either – we have plenty of data to show the economic benefits of women in the workforce and what subsidised childcare can do to facilitate it. And if O’Toole is really that concerned about the deficit and economic growth, you’d think that he would be enthusiastically supporting plans to expand subsidised childcare and early learning because it’s been proven to have far greater economic returns than what it costs a government.
But we also need to remember that O’Toole is beholden to the social conservatives in his party for his leadership win, and he’s spent his time as leader trying to play both sides on a lot of issues – talking about the importance of free trade while promoting protectionist “Canada First” policies, or saying he’ll go to Pride – but only if they allow uniformed police to march, or that he opposes conversion therapy but won’t support that particular bill because of hand-wavey discredited reasoning. I am not unconvinced that this isn’t more of the same – O’Toole winking to his social conservatives using their own coded language about “social experiments” without actually saying what it is out loud so that he can’t be called out on it by those who know that things like enhancing childcare is sound economic policy, and that this recession, which has disproportionately affected women and minorities, won’t be solved by the same tired bro-recovery that provides stimulus for bro-jobs. To dismiss the kinds of inclusive policies that this economic recovery demands as “social experiments” gives a clue as to who O’Toole is pandering to.
Good reads:
- Jonathan Wilkinson insists that the upcoming clean fuel standard will help drive innovation in order to reduce emissions.
- Some 830,000 Canadians have made voluntary repayments to CRA over pandemic benefits, most citing confusion.
- Here’s a look at Bob Rae’s first few weeks as Canada’s new UN ambassador.
- Annamie Paul has won the Green Party leadership, the first Black woman and Jewish woman to lead a party. She is running in the Toronto Centre by-election.
- Maclean’s has an interview Paul about her new role here.
- Paul won’t have to worry about the problem around investigations of the party’s executive director, who resigned on Sunday.
- In the Saskatchewan election, Scott Moe had to replace one of his candidates after he started promoting QAnon and pandemic conspiracy content.
- Chantal Hébert declares that Erin O’Toole can better read the room than his predecessor (which may be damning with faint praise).
Odds and ends:
My latest Loonie Politics video looks at how the “independent” Senate has quickly become a glorified rubber stamp.
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The Conservatives have gone into full-bore fascist territory and begun embracing the likes of QAnon, but the media barely touches this and glosses over his equivocating on human rights, while gearing up for another round of pundit panels and horse race analysis about the fifth or sixth pointless rehashed committee investigation into Justin’s WeMails. No wonder the CPC is dredging it up again with a vengeance: they’re desperate for a distraction from how deplorable they are, and the media is all too willing to oblige. They’re running interference for a “polite” Trump who is completely in hock to the absolute worst elements of humanity, but the media continues to whistle past the graveyard in favor of “Crooked Hillary Trudeau, drain the swamp and lock him up”.
I’d say that Canada’s broken fourth estate hasn’t learned a damn thing from the U.S. experience and yet it’s obvious that it’s intentional. They don’t want to learn. O’Toole speaks to people like them, the ownership class who are willing to abide the hateful nutjobs and hand-wave with (as Jagmeet loves to say) “pretty words” like “social experiment” meaning human rights, “sausage maker” meaning would-be assassin, and now “barbeque group” meaning fascist thugs. They don’t care, as long as they get their tax cuts, maintain institutional white cishet male supremacy, and don’t have a Trudeau to kick around anymore (or who kicks them around and pushes them to wake up). The people who this Orwellian gaslighting and couched newspeak disproportionately impacts are yelling into the void, while the opinion-shapers scream louder about “Liberal cronyism” and remain silent about Conservative hatred presented “with a smile.”
Every fascist campaign is an anti-corruption campaign.
Thank you so much for this analysis – I had been wondering what the “social experiment” language meant.