Liberal environment minister Steven Guilbeault said on Thursday that he had no idea what the definition of “woke” was in response to accusations launched at him and his party by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
“Frankly, I don’t even know what it means to be ‘woke’,” said Guilbeault when asked to respond to the accusations.
“Woke” is a common term used both on the right and the left to indicate an extreme preoccupation with social justice identity issues including race and gender.
Poilievre branded the Liberal and NDP partnership as a “radical woke coalition” in one of his first speeches as leader of the party.
“To the prime minister and his ‘radical woke coalition’ with the NDP, here’s my commitment,” said Poilievre.
“We as Conservatives are always happy to work with any party to collaborate, and advance, and extend the interests of Canadians, but … Conservatives will not support any new tax increases and we will fight tooth and nail to stop the coalition from introducing any.”
Guilbeault has a long and storied past as an environmental activist and politician that could fall within the confines of being “woke.”
As recently as Apr. 26, Guilbeault decried what he called “environmental racism” in the House of Commons.
Guilbeault threw his hat behind Green MP Elizabeth May’s Bill C-226 which would “address environmental racism (and) advance environmental justice.”
“The government supports this bill. I also want to thank her for her many years and decades of activism on environmental racism because it is a thing, despite what some people, unfortunately even in the House, think,” said Guilbeault.
Since Poilievre’s election, some sources within the Liberal party have expressed dissatisfaction with the party being seen as too woke by Canadians.
“We must return to a federal centre, centre-right party,” one anonymous MP told the CBC.
“We need a government that is down to earth and less woke.”
