Social Liberals stick together, stooping to new low

Vincent J. Curtis

18 Mar 20

Today, the Hannon Times published an op-ed written by Jaime Watt and slugged, "Conservative candidate stoops to a new low." The candidate was for the position of the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).  This person was excluded from pursuing the leadership by a decision of the party's central committee.  The person is James Karahanlios, who evidently is a social conservative.

It isn’t a new low for Torstar, just an interesting bargain between it and Jaime Watt, head of Navigator Ltd.  Watt gets to advertise his peculiar services, and Torstar gets a hit piece on a social conservative “troublemaker” in the CPC, James Karahanlios, whom few have heard of.  Proof of Mr. K’s troublemaker status was his “Axe the Carbon Tax” campaign.

Watt identifies as a Conservative, but is socially liberal.  The elimination of social conservatism politically leads immediately to the triumph of progressivism, and then the only differences between CPC and Liberals are degrees of “wokeness” and piffling differences over finance.

Watt makes several transparent pitches for his professional services as a political advice-giver: stating that “Canadian Muslims face uniquely vicious scrutiny for their faith,” “acceptance of homosexuality” having moved “in the right direction,” deplores “homophobic views” and writes movingly of the poor, “covered” Muslim woman asked to remove her veil by a public servant, as if showing your face in Canada were shameful.

In the course of this polemic, Watt can’t avoid pissing on his own shoes.  He writes admiringly that “Canada prides itself on the secularism of its public sphere” but then condemns Quebec’s Bill 21 which is intended to enforce secularism in the public sphere.  He writes a lachrymatory passage of the plight of “covered” Muslim women in Canada – the opposite of secularism in public.  Watt seems oblivious to the racism, misogyny, religious prejudice, and sheer backwardness of the culture he defends on grounds of liberalism - and that the point of Islam establishing enclaves in the western world is to bring that world slowly into submission to Sharia law, into that very backwardness.  This isn’t a secret to anyone who has studied the subject seriously.  If you believe in status of women, equality of marriage, religious tolerance, and secularism in the public sphere, you cannot but look with alarm at any rise of Sharia compliance, however innocent it may appear.  COVID-19 started out as a single case.

The reason for the rise of Trump in America is that social conservativism was effectively banished from the politics of Washington.  There was no difference between the parties on issues that mattered to a lot of people.  The full force of public shaming, condemnation, and the powers of government (yes, I mean spying) were leveled at those who bucked the progressive line.  There are lots of people in Canada who are social conservatives, even if you can’t see them from an office tower in downtown Toronto.  They’re the anchor to Watt’s and Torstar’s progressivism that’s trying to keep the good Canada brings to the world from self-destruction.

But Watt and Torstar are extremely comfortable with the progressive status quo, and that makes for a great bargain.  Torstar gets a hit piece on a social conservative with the weight of a CPC insider behind it, and Watt gets distributed advertisement for his professional services.

It’s not a new low, it’s business as usual.
-30-