Perhaps it was always this way, but it has certainly become impossible to ignore: shameless, naked pandering has taken over every aspect of life, to the point where its absence generates crisis-level anxiety. As standards of living have risen, and as knowledge has expanded, entitlements have gotten more and more out of control. Actual progress has slowed to a crawl because any kind of progress that leaves anyone behind or inconveniences anyone else in any way is not considered to be progress at all. Telling anyone “no” is absolutely beyond the pale.
It’s impossible not to feel disrespected and the way it played out doesn't sit right. But I’m mostly disappointed that my team and I won’t have the chance to build on all we accomplished with only a short runway. /3
— Nate Erskine-Smith (@beynate) May 13, 2025
Mark Carney may have, at one point, actually believed he was the irresistible force that could get the immovable object that is Canada moving again. He might have actually been surprised to find that navigating a financial crisis or two is mere child’s play when it comes to dealing the multi-various demands of Ottawa. Or he may have cynically been pretending otherwise all along. It matters little. After a week in which newly appointed ministers freestyled at will and other elected Liberal members pitched public fits about being dropped from cabinet, the notion of Mark Carney, CEO of Canada, was put to bed.
Canada in talks with the US about joining its ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system, Carney says https://t.co/hg6rOwlByI pic.twitter.com/TVY6JdzDRv
— New York Post (@nypost) May 22, 2025
Instead we have Mark Carney, the wind-up-toy prime minister who Trumpishly signs executive orders, punts on a budget and proclaims the magic words of “Mr. President, Canada is not for sale” directly to DJT’s bemused loathsome orange mug. Communication from Mr. Carney to his ministers, which seems to involve asking that people be on time and spell words correctly, only serves to illustrate the degree to which Liberal coddling has eroded even the most basic standards.
In Mark Carney's PMO, ministers get called out and punctuality matters | National Post https://t.co/OW9lus6uPI
— John Ivison (@IvisonJ) May 23, 2025
But wait a minute—weren’t MPs always going on background to complain about the Trudeau PMO’s constant meddling and muzzling? Clearly, there were abortive attempts to enforce those most basic of standards, which led to MP’s going into business for themselves until the general attitude of handling everything with kid gloves for the sake of peace prevailed. If Mark Carney doesn’t want unpleasant headlines, he’d better do the same. It’s a nice honeymoon he is having and it’d be a real shame if he spoiled it by trying to tell anyone what to do.
Interesting that Gerald Butts reportedly turned down becoming Mark Carney's chief of staff.
— Lorrie Goldstein (@sunlorrie) May 23, 2025
'Gerald Butts, Cyrus Reporter and former UN ambassador Marc-André Blanchard, were approached to take on the job but declined, according to sources.'https://t.co/30OZYbghZk
The message was clear when actual politicians who have far more experience than Mr. Carney rushed to the microphones to calm the fears of various stakeholder groups who might have performed their own version of the January 6 insurrection if they weren’t pandered to in the correct fashion. Housing Minister Gregor Robertson reassured homeowners that, no, the price of their houses will not come down even as the government promises to build more homes, because the laws of supply and demand can be suspended at will. Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne left the possibility of a budget at some point in the future open (it was later clarified that one would be offered in the fall) before moving onto leaving open, for more than one second, the possibility of tariffs against the U.S. being quietly dropped. (They were not, as of the last pandering statement.)
Justice Minister Sean Fraser set the expectation for undoubtedly relieved public sector employees when he announced he wouldn’t be coming into the office and doing his job from his laptop. New Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s claim that Israel was withholding food entering the Gaza Strip was no doubt a signal to anxious observers that Canada would still be retaining its traditional role as an “honest broker” in the Middle East (that is to say, a country who is barely noticed trying to insert themselves between Israel and the people who regularly say they don’t want Israel to be there). Even as he ceded the environment portfolio to Julie Dabrusin, one of precious few Jews appointed to cabinet, Steven Guilbeault made it clear that dirty, nasty pipelines that nobody actually wants to build will never be built on his watch. (None of this actually matters, of course, because in a week the King will be here at Carney’s request to dispense pandering to his fawning subjects on a truly regal scale.)More of the same falsehoods.
— François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) 🇨🇦 (@FP_Champagne) May 18, 2025
To retaliate against U.S. tariffs, Canada launched largest-ever response — including $60B of tariffs on end-use goods. 70% of those tariffs are still in place.
We temporarily and publicly paused tariffs on goods for health & public safety reasons. pic.twitter.com/qsLlxnzYlr
Why King Charles III is delivering a rare speech in Canada. https://t.co/UJe94preGf
— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) May 23, 2025
Meanwhile, Dabrusin will have the high-profile but unenviable task of having to tangle with rogue Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who is quickly emerging as the next person to be squashed on the oncoming windshield of Official Canada. Like Pierre Poilievre, who may never get over being humiliated for threatening to say “no” to those who must be obeyed, Smith’s problem is that she is pandering, in exactly the same fashion as the aforementioned Liberals but, tragically, to the wrong people. You’ll be hearing more and more about how she needs to stop her rage farming to a bunch of rootin’ tootin’ pop gun shootin’ Alberta separatists who want to break the country up and don’t even understand that America will rank them behind the lowliest 50th state in the Union, and that’s if their application to become #51 is accepted.
Alberta is sovereign. Following a referendum we need NOT apply for separation from canada via clarity act.
— Alberta 51 Project (@Ab51_Project) May 11, 2025
We can establish our own constitution.
And apply for 51st state status so we can adopt USD, immediately establish unlimited free trade with 50 other states. pic.twitter.com/9aZ302RlQE
You’ll hear about how she is the manifestation of something called “the woke right” in Canada, which is the term we’re going to use for right wingers who don’t let the left rub their nose in the dirt without complaining. And I’ll have to dutifully write columns about these yahoos’ flirtations with anti-Semitism, which should be as much of a problem as similar dalliances on the left, but it isn’t because those wokesters on the left are far more empathic and criticizing them is punching down.
Why do you think Jamil Jivani was left out of Pierre Poilievre's shadow cabinet?
— Kirk Lubimov (@KirkLubimov) May 22, 2025
He was the only one to mop the floor with Doug Ford and the only one who has somewhat of a relationship with key people in Donald Trump's admin.
🤔 pic.twitter.com/2ydNZ3dIZM
Put another way, the woke left recognizes the need to pander and be pandered to (without actually doing anything) as the glue that binds people together, while the right has spent the last however long advocating for vote-losing ideas like personal responsibility and striving to better yourself. It’s not even that the conservatives are pandering that’s the problem; it’s that they are bad at pandering.
Councillor Moise's motion to defer the Bubble Zone bylaw FAILS 8-16. pic.twitter.com/TdxamGLg6E
— Matt Elliott (@GraphicMatt) May 22, 2025
As was said often enough during the campaign, voters want to hear these ideas from winners like Carney, not grievance-mongering losers. Poilievre has now retreated to telling Carney to steal his ideas, but what he doesn’t get is that voters don’t actually want Carney to implement those ideas. They want to convince themselves that Carney would implement the ideas if not for these unpleasant political folks that are wrong-footing him at every turn. If only conservatives would figure this out, like Doug Ford has, then they could have their turn in charge. If they don’t play the stupid game the right way, they won’t win the stupid prize.
It's hard to stomach such obvious displays from the world's biggest news voices that, to them, some lives ABSOLUTELY matter more than others.
— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) May 22, 2025
These murders are deeply wrong and sad.
But I have never seen Peter Baker write this kind of article about a murdered Palestinian. https://t.co/aKgcLz9ESK
This is the reason why the Jewish community is losing the pandering primary to the people who want Jewish influence diminished. When Carney generously gave Evan Solomon the completely artificial title of Minister of Artificial Intelligence, did the Jewish community throw the Liberals a parade and fall all over themselves with gratitude? No? Well then, don’t be surprised when the government threatens unspecified “consequences” against Israel if they expand military operations any further. And don’t expect anyone to shed a tear over Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, either. Sure it’s bad they are dead, but taking five minutes to feel bad about them means we spend five whole minutes not talking about the real issue. Once again, pandering to the wrong people is going to deliberately inflame tensions, which is not what anyone who matters needs right now.
Mazel tov to Liberal MPs @shafqatalimp + @vankayak for their appointment to cabinet!
— Independent Jewish Voices (@IndJewishVoices) May 13, 2025
Both are signatories of @vote_palestine and #ArmsEmbargoNow. https://t.co/fXWwZyFW37
We look forward to working with them to URGENTLY advance these demands and turn them into policy. pic.twitter.com/XjFINVfEGe
If there anyone who knows how to manage the politics of pandering, it’s the folks who celebrated the appointment of two randos to Cabinet on the basis of (so they say) signing the Vote Palestine platform. And why should this commitment be worth the paper it is printed on, considering we are dealing with the same Liberals that have been in power since October 8th? Because this is Canada, and in order to get anywhere you must indulge the feelings of weakling politicians by saying nice things about them. That way, your feelings can be indulged with a crumb or two that you can take back to your people, who need their own tummies rubbed so they don’t denounce you publicly. This constant grind, this endless shushing of hurt feelings, is why talented outsiders like Mark Carney mostly stay away from Ottawa, and it’s why he will either become another Man who Panders instead of the Man with the Plan, or end up panned.
Josh Lieblein can be reached at [email protected] for your response to Doorstep Postings.
