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Canada, we need to talk about the right-wing extremist radicalization that is taking place in our country. 1/
Canada, we need to talk about the right-wing extremist radicalization that is taking place in our country. 1/
As of today, the URL returns a 404 page. But you can still see the Google cache:
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KjtzaLc-UiIJ:https://www.conservative.ca/cpc/election-rigging/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
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https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KjtzaLc-UiIJ:https://www.conservative.ca/cpc/election-rigging/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
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The elaborate, well-funded right-wing parallel media universe that managed to convince tens of millions of Americans of the lie that the election was rigged is also in play here in Canada.
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And just as in America, our conservative party is actively pandering to the people who are being radicalized by right-wing media.
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In May, Erin O'Toole pushed out a fundraising appeal with inflammatory language: "help to send Justin Trudeau a strong message that we're coming for him!"
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It's no accident that O'Toole called his policy platform, "Our Country: A Call to Take Back Canada".
Who, exactly, "took" Canada? And who gets to be counted among the people taking it back?
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Who, exactly, "took" Canada? And who gets to be counted among the people taking it back?
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O'Toole's fundraising appeals rail against "vandals and left-wing agitators" who are "defac[ing]" the "statues to Canadian heroes and national builders." He hails "our proud traditions" and promises to "stand up to left-wing mobs".
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His tagline, cribbed directly from Donald Trump's xenophobic nationalism, is "Canada first".
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Erin O'Toole knows exactly what he's doing. He is appealing
directly to Canada's version of Trump's MAGA base.
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directly to Canada's version of Trump's MAGA base.
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He's appealing to the people who get their information from Rebel Media and The Post Millennial and The Sun and other unabashedly right-wing propaganda organs pushing a paranoid, conspiratorial worldview of grievance and dwindling privilege.
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He is speaking to white nationalist grievance when he awkwardly tries to defend residential schools and their program of cultural genocide against Indigenous Peoples.
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That's why he defends the "heritage" of genocidal colonialism while sparing not a word for the systemic racism, institutionalized violence and generational trauma that underwrote those "proud traditions" he promises to stand up for while 'taking the country back'.
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O'Toole's pandering is more subtle than, say, Derek Sloan's, but is all the more effective for that. When Sloan openly attacked the patriotism of Canada's chief public health officer, the party shrugged and mostly remained silent.
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O'Toole didn't directly go after Dr. Tam. He doesn't have to. He relentlessly goes after "the Chinese regime" instead, as part of his "Canada First" messaging, which directly echoes Trump's racist "America First" rhetoric. He knows his base will connect the dots for him.
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It's extraordinary how well the racist redirection strategy works: conservative policy exacerbates inequity, which creates widespread frustration and resentment that conservatives then hijack to seize more power in a vicious cycle.
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Conservative politicians tell themselves they can play with fire without getting burned, but it is self-delusion. When you feed the beast, you make the beast bigger and stronger. Sooner or later, the beast *will* break free and devour you.
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America is lucky that the beast which took over their government turned out to be staggeringly incompetent. That is really the only reason the "guard rails" of democracy held him more or less in check. Next time, they might not be so lucky.
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In Canada, our right-wing politicians are also feeding the beast - a beast already nourished by a lively right-wing media ecosystem. It is a profoundly dangerous game.
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There is still time, maybe, for conservative leaders to decide that feeding the beast is just not worth it - that even if they manage to seize power, they will ultimately not be able to control the beast they unleashed and it will consume them.
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