As I've argued over the past few weeks, the trouble with using dog-whistle politics in Canada is that people might hear the whistle, but few if any ever come running.
Our aggressively boring political culture breeds and attracts politicians who just aren't very good at crafting truly polarizing messages. Their spirits might be willing, but their skills are lacking.
From our old pal Maxime Bernier equating the Trudeau government with the brutal fictional regimes of 1984, to Faith Goldy's distress about the media ignoring her manufactured outrageousness, to whatever the hell Andrew Scheer was going for by stepping up for Quebec Grandma instead of letting the incident stand on its own, it's not exactly what you would call Steve Bannon-calibre material. As it is with everything, the Liberals have effectively cornered the market, with the Prime Minister's enablers and haters still twitching over the last monumentally dumb thing he did, said, or wore.
It's so bad that unintentional not-really goofs from the right, such as Hamish Marshall saying "hi" to a member of the Rebel staff, cause more outrage (fake though it may be) than any deliberate messaging intended to divide.
That's why Doug Ford stands alone. When you've got a CANADALAND podcast dedicated specifically to "fact-checking" you or whatever, you know you're pushing the right buttons. Doug divides, definitively.
But even he and his crew can't match the effortlessly masterful triggering of a Justin Trudeau. For while Trudeau will pick on a specific person, or spread his effluvious wedge thin enough so that most people don't even know why they're suddenly upset, he never actively invites the mob to assault his enemies. And that's unfortunately what Doug did by introducing what effectively amounts to a snitch line for people to report teachers who don't teach the new old sex ed curriculum.
Did it make the unions mad? Of course. Mission accomplished there. Did Doug expect Leadnow.ca to flood the tip line with what are likely positive messages about teachers? Probably not. Does Doug expect "ordinary Canadians" to push back by reporting teachers who are likely their friends and neighbours? Probably. Will he be disappointed? Definitely.
You see, this snitch line is another lure intended to catch the big fish that lie at the bottom of the dark and impenetrable lake that is the Canadian voting public. Between pollsters bumbling about and parties launching endless petitions and list-building exercises so that they can try and mostly fail to "ID their vote," the political establishment is engaged in a ton of fruitless activity, which they know full well is fruitless, to try and influence voters who can't be bothered to know the difference between an MP and an MPP.
And I'll tell you another dirty little secret: The Canadian political establishment also knows why their expensive and largely useless snake oil constantly fails to move the needle outside the Liberal centrist consensus, and that is because there is absolutely no interest in having that needle moved, no matter how much those voters may whine and carp and moan about the shortcomings of that centrist consensus.
As someone who's covered this beat for years, literally ever since the 2011 provincial campaign, where the PC war room blew up their own campaign when they used this issue as a wedge a few days before E-Day, I can say with the utmost certainty that these rampaging so-cons literally need to be threatened into acting on, or speaking to, their concerns. The supporters of the consensus, progressive position that the curriculum was fine before Doug Ford trashed it at the bidding of white evangelical homophobes have no such misgivings, because they know the consensus, progressive opinion leaders will have their back.
If you doubt me, I ask you to judge: Who is more credible? Who sounds more sure of themselves? The kids who say that removing this curriculum makes it harder for them to express who they really are, or the lady who claims compulsory sex ed for kids makes her want to "vomit in disbelief"? Whom are you more inclined to support, just on a gut level?
I certainly know which I am more likely to oppose. I suspect voters will, too.
Written by Josh Lieblein
