So here we are, one month into Andrew Scheer's tenure as leader of the CPC, and already the media and the Liberal establishment is licking their chops at the prospect of shoving him through a wood chipper if he has the temerity to take his plan to defund universities that limit freedom of speech to the voters in the next election.
I can hear their cries and passive aggressive sneers already. "There is no problem with freedom of speech on Canadian campuses!" "If we only cut universities blank cheques there wouldn't be a freedom of speech problem!" "Forcing people to speak a certain way so they don't hurt the feelings of others is just the civil and respectful thing to do!" "Climate change is to blame!" "Why don't you cut funding to *corporations* who limit freedom of speech, huh???"
Yes, Election 2019 is shaping up to be yet another round of everyone's favourite Canadian political game, "Don't Touch The Third Rail!" Except that, instead of just three rails, they seem to be multiplying exponentially, don't they?
Tolerance for uncomfortable truths is at an all time low, and while I hold out no sympathy for disgraced liberal icons like Jon Kay, Steve Ladurantaye, David Johnston and Andrew Potter who have been hoist on their own progressive petards, having to contend with a plague of aggrieved Canadians demanding a pound of flesh apiece in recompense for a perceived slight is severe enough punishment that I fail to see why the government had to take the additional step of officially criminalizing the act.
But no matter how dire the consequences, conservatives in Canada cannot afford to duck and cover this time, even though that's what they usually do when a debate takes an uncomfortable turn. This is on an entirely different and far more fundamental level than wearing the niqab during citizenship ceremonies, funding faith based schools or the vagaries of a carbon tax.
If conservatives in Canada are unwilling to plant their flag and possibly go down in flames on freedom of speech, then we really must ask ourselves what the point of being a conservative in Canada is, other than a club of people who don't like the Liberals and occasionally pick fights with one another because those are at least fights they can win.
Of course, if you ask the Maxime Bernier/libertarian crew whether they're willing to get over themselves and back Andrew Scheer in his fight to preserve something they allegedly believe in, you may get an answer, or they might be otherwise occupied using TheRebel as a forum to air their grievances against the leader.
And perhaps, since freedom of speech was originally a liberal (and Liberal) construct, the fight to preserve it is already a lost cause, since it can be retracted by the Liberals just as easily as it was conceived, and thus we have already accepted their terms.
And when Canada eventually joins the United States in failed statehood and becomes a cautionary tale to the world of what happens when you govern "from the heart out", maybe it would be better if what passes for conservatism in Canada just faded away, so that at least a plausible case could be made that whatever happens to our country, it wasn't the fault of "the corporations". Maybe the Liberals need to wear their failures as theirs and theirs alone.
Yes, there are many reasons to cede this last resort to the left. But, if for no other reason than I have to believe that it isn't all for nothing, I hold out hope that there is still a fight to be had and perhaps even won.
Written by Josh Lieblein
