My thoughts in the @globeandmail on Erin O'Toole + 'cancel culture'. His defense of free inquiry at universities comes as he leads a political party that has spent the last two decades driving away even the most mainstream researchers. 1/5 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-erin-otooles-sudden-interest-in-campus-free-speech-rings-hollow/

The party that can’t seem to get enough of the sanctity of traditional Canadian history is the same party whose previous two leaders, Stephen Harper and Andrew Scheer, rejected the consensus opinion of constitutional experts about who can and cannot form a government. 2/5

And the Tories’ bizarre cancellation and replacement of the 2011 long-form census makes a mockery of Mr. O’Toole’s new-found concern about other kinds of politicized cancellations. 3/5

If Mr. O’Toole is serious about growing his party, he needs to welcome in academics and researchers, rather than making quick and provocative statements on academic freedom debates. 4/5

Unlike some of its global counterparts, the Conservative Party is not an anti-intellectual party at its core; they just work hard to look like one. Mr. O'Toole still has a chance to turn this around but so far he is going the wrong way. 5/5