Matthew Lau: The Liberals’ woke cheerlessness

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To be governed by blundering, economically confused, meddlesome politicians is one thing. But when those same politicians are also determined to be cheerless, woke scolds – that really is irksome. Lamentation is their stock-in-trade, and the problem with the lamentable scolds is that they get on everyone’s nerves, they are boastful and self-righteous, they are committed to discredited theories, their world views are not supported by evidence, they unfairly denounce those who do not share in their woke cheerlessness, and alas, they have been in control of the federal government for the past six years.

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Last week, Justin Trudeau declared that flags on federal buildings, which have been at half-mast since May 30 following the discovery of unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school, should remain at half-mast “until it is clear that Indigenous peoples are happy to raise them again.” Note that the Indigenous population of Canada numbers 1.7 million. If Trudeau has polled all of them to confirm unanimous agreement with his position, he has so far neglected to mention this important fact.

He instead scolded Erin O’Toole for thinking that after nearly four months we might finally raise the flags again. According to Trudeau, only Indigenous people should get to decide about the flags. Apparently, the other 95 per cent of Canadians should have no say in the matter. This is preposterous. Everyone agrees that the residential schools were horrible, but the outrages they occasioned occurred decades ago, in some cases many decades ago. Unless we want to be a permanently cheerless country, we cannot enter into a state of mourning for months at a time over every horror in our history.

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In addition to Indigenous reconciliation, climate change also ranks high on the list of priorities among lamentable scolds. Mercifully, the federal government’s lead climate scold, Catherine McKenna, formerly minister of environment and climate change, is not running for re-election. She leaves behind a great number of similarly lamentable scolds, however, among them Mr. Trudeau and Jonathan Wilkinson, the current environment and climate change minister.

The Liberal line on the environment is something like this: “The planet is burning. We know this because we are Liberals and believe in science – unlike Stephen Harper who hated science and muzzled government scientists.” This is all nonsense. While it is possible to be a Liberal and also understand science, the two things have no connection whatsoever. Jonathan Wilkinson said last month, for example, that “the science shows it is vital” that countries do more to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But in fact, the IPCC reports that if global temperatures rise 2.0 degrees instead of 1.5 degrees, the global GDP loss due to the additional warming would be a mere 0.2 per cent by the year 2100. You would think that incinerating the planet would cause GDP to fall by more.

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Nevertheless, the Liberals are convinced the planet really is on fire, and so have felt justified in spending more than $100 billion of public money over the past six years on “clean growth” initiatives, including sending politicians and bureaucrats flying around the world to learn about how to make everyone pay more for energy. Meanwhile — again, because of the science, we are told — the people whose money they spent are scolded for driving the wrong type of car or using plastic drinking straws. Both combustion-engine cars and plastic straws will be banned if the Liberals get their way.

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The Liberal mindset on reconciliation and climate carries over into other issues. The defining characteristic of woke scolds is that they elevate their self-righteousness by making attention-grabbing displays of their commitment to social justice. This often involves spending lots of other people’s money or denouncing as intolerant, idiotic, proponents of inequity, deniers of science, opponents of women’s rights, and so on, anybody who deviates from politically correct doctrines, disputes predictions of impending climate catastrophe, or dissents from left-wing orthodoxy on social issues.

Here are the facts. The residential schools were horrible, but we do not need to keep flags at half-mast for months. The average global temperature today is about one degree Celsius higher than in 1880, but the planet is not burning. Intolerance has not been completely eradicated, but it is far less prevalent than in past generations and is everywhere held in disrepute. The constant lectures, scoldings, and government interventions are wildly disproportionate to the magnitude of these problems.

Must we have another term of these lamentable scolds running the federal government? We will soon find out, but whatever the outcome of the election, raise your flag and buy a box of plastic straws, because joining the Liberals in their woke cheerlessness is unthinkable.

Matthew Lau is a Toronto writer.