With a plethora of important issues that need to be addressed, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre instead decided to spend some of his political capital endorsing a 1984-eqsue age-verification system for adult websites.
“He's proposing that adults should have to give their ID and personal information to sketchy websites, or create a digital ID for adults to be able to browse the web where they want,” Trudeau said of Poilievre.
“That's something we stand against.”
Wait, did Trudeau actually make a good point?
Most people would agree that children shouldn’t have access to adult content, but that sounds like a job for parents, not the nanny state.
How about don’t give kids their own phone or computer?
If they must have access to their own digital device, why not install parental controls or keep the device in an open area where a parent can supervise?
A spokesperson for Poilievre later walked back his endorsement somewhat, but this is merely one example of how his social conservatism has manifested.
Poilievre has stated he believes “biological males” have no place in sports or change rooms that are labelled female, and there is ambiguity around his stance on abortion, the ultimate kiss of death for right-wing candidates.
Former Conservative leader Andrew Sheer may very well have lost the 2019 election because of his personal views on abortion – that and his utter lack of charisma.
In the United States, the overturning of Roe v. Wade likely played a role in the Republicans underperforming during the 2022 midterms, and an Alabama court’s ruling against IVF treatment proved so controversial that even Donald Trump called on Alabama to find “an immediate solution.”
Perhaps it is unfair that far-left ideas such as abolishing prisons are treated with kid glove by the media and intelligentsia, while any right-wing idea is automatically marked with a scarlet letter.
But whether conservatives like it or not, society has significantly shifted in its views on bedroom issues and especially abortion over the past half a century, and people have become far too accustomed to the liberal way of life to allow anyone to infringe on that liberty.
It should be pretty clear from this piece that Poilievre’s values don’t align with my own, and his stance on Israel is as terrible as one would expect, but one would be foolish to deny his abilities as an opposition leader.
He is effective at calling out Trudeau’s many glaring faults and able to tap into the populist moment without coming across like a kook.
He is at his best when he talks about the visible decline of Canada, whether it is the poor economy, the lack of housing or the drug addicts on the streets, all of which have gotten exponentially worse under Trudeau’s tenure.
However, as Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley can attest, it is far easier to criticize than it is to govern, and if Poilievre doubles down on bedroom issues, he may never even get the chance to do that.
