As a Canadian Conservative I am saddened to see that Erin O’Toole’s stratagem to win the next election is to pander to the political Left on almost every issue imaginable.
To cite but one example, in his most important speech to date as head of the Conservative Party, he declared the hypothesis that man made CO2 is the cause of global warming to be an unequivocal fact. BUT IT IS NOT. Indeed there is a tremendous amount of scientific evidence utterly inconsistent with that hypothesis. But as the self-loathing, anti-Western, anti-Industrial Left has come to dominate our Culture, disagreeing with its narrative, even on the basis of demonstrably valid scientific facts, now reduces one to the level of a “denier,” one so delusional as to question the historical reality of the Holocaust. That this insulting analogy is devoid of intellectual integrity does not seem to bother O’Toole, more than willing to embrace the Left’s environmental Articles of Faith because he thinks it might enhance his chances in the next election.
Environmental radicals, as are most on the political Left, are but a species of religious fanatic. Of course we must minimize pollution and grant that CO2 may be a contributing factor in global warming. But to the pragmatic realist [ i.e., “conservative”] we must also continue to satisfy our energy needs in the least harmful way possible. Cancelling North American pipelines out of some hysterical revulsion for the very fossil fuels responsible for many of the achievements of our civilization makes absolutely no sense if it leaves us more dependent on foreign nations which have exhibited no respect for the environment whatsoever. But religious fanatics are impervious to Reason. Inasmuch as the majority of Canadians seem to have swallowed the lie that 97% of the scientific community is on board with what is demonstrably no more than a hypothesis, O’Toole seems prepared to abandon his political base and simply endorse the popular opinion that Man Made CO2 is an unequivocal threat to the very future of the species. That many of the most renowned proponents of that narrative use private jets to get around makes me want to throw my clubs, bag and all, into the nearest pond!
[At the Conservatives’ recent official policy convention, 54% voted against the proposal to stipulate that man made CO2 was irrefutably responsible for Climate Change. O’Toole chose to ignore them.]
But Donald Trump is an entirely different kind of animal. Having said he was going to build a wall along America’s southern border, he was immediately, relentlessly, denounced as a Racist by the mainstream Left. But he did not back down, did not succumb to the pressures of Political Correctness, did not surrender to an argument that was demonstrably, pragmatically, absurd. That he was correct to have done so is manifest in the absolute chaos at America’s Mexican border which Biden and his partners in stupidity are presently doing their very best to obfuscate.
For all his flaws, many American “conservatives” valued Trump because, unlike so many on the Right, he was unapologetic in his defense of Capitalism and Individual Freedom, forthright in stating his political agenda, invariably faithful to the promises he had made and fearless before the venomous and almost universal condemnation of the mainstream culture.
To those incredulous that I could endorse one whom they see as no more than an effing idiot, I offer the following irrefutable fact: Flawed individuals committed to basically good Ideas are far less dangerous than well-intentioned simpletons committed to Ideas whose repercussions have proven to be historically, demonstrably, inevitably calamitous.