Why Canada Is So Woke

 

Canada has a reputation as the wokest country in the Anglosphere; perhaps in the developed world. What is it about Canada that makes it so susceptible to this?

I say it is the legendary Canadian “niceness,” the love of social harmony. “Peace, order, and good government.” This, I think, traces back to the UE Loyalists: English Canada was founded on the fundamental principle of deference to authority. This means not just government authority—and Canada is surely the only country in the world where the police force is such a beloved national symbol—but also social authority generally, the dictates of good manners and polite discourse.

This means that Canadians are peculiarly vulnerable to being bullied. Anyone who shouts loudly will have their demands met, for the sake of social peace, and anyone who speaks as an authority will be accepted as such. 

This is what the modern woke left really is: a selection of bullies making demands. A set of special interest groups, overall a minority. Like any bully, they will not desist until and unless firmly challenged; their demands will only grow and grow. And against this trend, Canada is uniquely defenseless.

Women are a similar case. Feminism was the vanguard of the woke trend; women continue to be more “woke” then men. Yet women are the chief victims of wokery. Feminism, in rejecting the traditional feminine role, subverted all their interests. This was more obvious in the early days, when “consciousness-raising sessions” were the main feminist activity. Women had to be bullied or socially shamed into the new doctrine. But now studies show that women are less happy than they were pre-1960, and women in developed nations are less happy than those in the Third Word, where traditional roles are still more common. And they are losing their advantage in life expectancy over men. 

This has happened because women are like Canadians. Women are naturally inclined—naturally inclined, note—to be nice, to defer to authority, to be flexible and go along. This, like Canadian niceness, is usually an admirable trait, but leaves one vulnerable to bullying and abuse. 

And the bully’s demands grow and grow. Now being nice requires accepting men in women’s washrooms, rapists in women’s prisons, men taking the trophies in women’s sports. 

This also perhaps explains the commonly noted phenomenon of “flying monkeys”: how bullies and narcissists always find willing accomplices. “We are three times the slaves of the owner of the Golden Cap, whosoever he may be.”

How far can it all go before the enslaved monkeys rebel? Perhaps we are about to see.