To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "Never in the field of human endeavour has a magazine cover of so few, generated a backlash among so many."
Of course, I'm referring to Maclean's magazine's recent much-talked-about cover which features a group photo of Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Alberta's United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney, Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, titled "The Resistance."
The idea is that these five conservative politicians are leading the resistance to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's controversial carbon tax.
At any rate, the reaction to this cover on social media was fast and furious, especially from those on the left side of the political spectrum.
And while some of that reaction was humorous, i.e. "They look like a boy band", some of it had an "identity politics" sting to it.
More specifically, much of the commentary focussed on the whiteness and maleness of the resisting politicians.
Former Liberal advisor Scott Reid, for instance, noted on Instagram: "The only thing being resisted in this picture is a uterus." (Yeah, I don't really know what that means either.)
For his part, NDP MP Nathan Cullen, went on Twitter to suggest the cover's headline should be "Pale, male and stale the revenge tour."
Meanwhile, former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister, Glenn Murray, reacted thusly on his Twitter account: "4 years ago 5 of 10 Provincial premiers were woman and political discourse was more elevated, things got done & Premiers didn't pose like vigilantes in cheap suits to attack Mother Nature."
So I guess we're supposed to believe that white males hate the planet. (Ironically, Reid, Cullen and Murray are all white males.)
It'll be interesting to see what happens to this narrative if Alberta Premier Rachel Notley decides to oppose the carbon tax.
Anyway, this is just the latest example of progressive leftists demonizing white males.
Indeed, it has become something of standard talking point among progressive elitists to blame white males for all the world's problems — white males are bad because they voted for Donald Trump; white males are bad because they promote masculine toxicity; white males are bad because they boycotted the all-female Ghostbusters movie.
And this why you get the sense (or at least I get the sense) that progressive elites are just counting the days until older white males die off.
Once the Grim Reaper inevitably thins out the ranks of white males, progressive elites seem to believe it will usher in a utopian era allowing them to implement their elitist agenda, such as globalizing the economy, erasing national borders, massively hiking carbon taxes and changing national anthem lyrics.
Unfortunately for them however, I think progressive elites are the making the mistake of believing their own propaganda.
Now I don't want to get into an argument here about whether or not old white males are actually evil, since I happen to be an old, white male myself, meaning I'm probably a bit biased on the subject.
What I'd like to do instead is pour a little cold water on the dreams of progressive elitists. (That's kind of a hobby of mine.)
So here's the cold water of reality: even if all old, white, males were to suddenly vanish overnight, progressive elites would still face serious problems implementing their agenda.
Does anybody really believe, for example, that non-white, non-males are going to be overjoyed at the prospect of paying a lot more money to fill up their gas tanks?
Or does anyone really believe, non-white, non-males will support globalization if they think it means Canadian jobs will be outsourced to China or to North Carolina?
Or does anyone really believe, non-white, non-males will support an open border policy if they fear "foreigners" will flood into our country to "steal" jobs or to commit acts of terrorism?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that progressive elites are so focussed on castigating white males, that they fail to see that economic anxiety and resentment are emotions which can afflict all humans.
My point is, all of humanity white people, black people, brown people, gay people, straight people, male people, female people, transgendered people shares the same basic primal wiring, which makes us emotional, fractious and tribalistic.
And yes, even progressive elites share that flawed humanity.
And it's that flawed nature of humanity which makes politics so difficult and messy, no matter who's on the cover of Maclean's.
Photo Credit: Maclean's