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The very worst thing that ever happened in Canadian politics occurred the other day — or at least that's what I've learned from reading the papers. At a rally at the Alberta legislature last weekend, a group of anti-NDP protestors chanted "lock her up" a few times in reference to Premier Notley. Former cabinet minister and current Tory leadership hopeful Christopher Alexander was present. He apparently smiled at one point.

The horrors of this episode have spawned a thousand think-pieces across the land. Does Minister Alexander "not believe that those who aspire to leadership positions have a responsibility to draw the line at what constitutes gratuitous abuse versus legitimate debate?" asked the Toronto Star's Chantal Hebert. "We seem to be heading into the dark American world where truth is defined by the intensity of anger and emotion, not by fact" agreed Don Braid at the Calgary Herald. These chanters "must be denounced by all" The Globe and Mail editorial board thundered in their lead editorial(!) in Monday's paper.

Do I oppose chanting "lock her up" in regards to politicians? I guess, but I have to say, if you're traumatized by the idea of people calling a politician a crook, you really need to get out more.

Specifically, you should have gotten out to the protests that consumed the urban centres of this country last year, when our-then Conservative government was in the process of passing Bill C-51, the Anti-Terrorism Act, which strengthened security measures in various ways a lot of people really hated back then but don't worry about much these days. If you open up your internet machine to Google Image Search and plunk in "bill c-15 protest" you'll see all sorts of colourful things.

You'll see people accusing the Prime Minister of establishing a "police state," for instance. Or practicing "state terrorism," which is a phrase referring to what military dictatorships do when they turn their guns on their own people. Thomas Mulcair attended an anti-C51 rally in Montreal where a lot of people were waving these sorts of signs, including a small child who had one that said "C-51 is an act of TERROR."

Across the country, many protestors held signs that made analogies between the government of Stephen Harper and Adolph Hitler, whose fascist regime killed 34 million people. In this photo, for instance, we see Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, who is quite the media darling, posing happily with a sign that explicitly analogizes Bill C-51 with Hitler's Germany. There were Harper/Hitler posters at a protest in Edmonton, where two NDP MPs spoke. A guy wearing a giant swastika sandwich board with Harper's face in the centre was present at a protest in Halifax attended by several NDP politicians.

There was a big anti-C-51 protest in Toronto where yet more NDP MPs spoke, as well as Elizabeth May. Many people in that crowd held signs bearing photos of Prime Minister Harper with the word "TERRORIST" slapped across his face. At a Vancouver protest, which was attended by yet more NDP politicians, there were signs calling to "DESTROY" Harper.

I might have missed it, but I do not recall these protestors inspiring a groundswell of outraged editorials across the land. On the contrary, since the media was near-unanimously opposed to the Anti-Terrorism Act, they purposefully ignored the madness of the protestors who also opposed it, since their existence could be incorporated into a helpful narrative that the bill was provoking grassroots public revulsion every bit as rational as their own.

But the distaste was obviously not rational, like so much opposition to the Harper Conservatives. Many people on the Canadian left — let's call them the alt-left — genuinely believed Stephen Harper, middling, boring, democratically-elected—three-times Stephen Harper, was a monstrously evil man, a terrorist, a dictator, a fascist, a man salivating to jail his opponents, criminalize dissent, and establish a white supremacist Nazi regime. They said so very loudly and openly, and were encouraged to do so, either explicitly or through silence, by this nation's vast network of progressive politicians, journalists, and NGOs.

Their actions were not morally equivalent to some angry Albertans who said, in the silly way ordinary people talk about politics, that they'd like to see their Premier go to prison for the mess she's made of things. They were much worse.

The voters of Canada are not as dumb as the people who write our newspapers. One hopes they will remember this appalling double-standard come 2019.

Photo Credit: Edmonton Sun

Written by J.J McCullough

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.