The Conservative Party of Canada’s national convention in Quebec City saw considerable pushback against the rampant woke ideologies that seem to have proliferated in Canada since the election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
From resolutions taking aim at gender ideology and “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) to keynote speeches that denounced cancel culture and censorship – Conservatives made clear that wokism has no place in their party.
Anti-woke policy resolutions:
Conservative delegates passed several anti-woke policy resolutions at the convention.
Policy resolution C-7, which received support from 69% of delegates, made the party support for a ban on life altering and irreversible gender transitions for children and teenagers, while encouraging “positive mental and physical health support for all Canadians suffering from gender dysphoria and related mental health challenges.”
Meanwhile, policy resolution C-15, which added to the party’s policy declaration the assertion that “women are entitled to the safety, dignity, and privacy of single-sex spaces (e.g., prisons, shelters, locker rooms, washrooms) and the benefits of women-only categories (e.g., sports, awards, grants, scholarships),” passed with 87% support.
Ninety-five percent of delegates voted for policy resolution A-16, which made the party oppose DEI hiring practices while supporting the restoration of “merit in Canada’s innovation by directing hiring practices associated with federal research funding away from ideology and instead emphasizing first and foremost, supporting and retaining Canada’s top research talent, irrespective of personal immutable characteristics.”
Resolution A-19, which opposed mandatory DEI training for workers, passed 81% support. The proposal notes that “those employed in the public sector, unions or self-regulated trades/professions should not be forced to make affirmations, or participate in ideological programs, as a condition of employment or practice.”
Delegates clapped and cheered at the passage of all five resolutions.
Anti-woke keynotes:
Keynote speakers at the Convention also took aim at wokism.
Party leader Pierre Poilievre took aim at woke cancel culture in his speech, and praised Quebecers for not going along with wokism.
“This business of deleting our past must end. And this is a matter on which English Canada must learn from Quebec. Quebecers—and I’m saying this in English deliberately—do not apologize for their culture, language or history. They celebrate it. All Canadians should do the same,” he said.
Poilievre also said “liberals run down freedom so they can justify taking it away.”
Retired Lt.-Gen. Michel Maisonneuve and his wife, retired Maj. Barbara Maisonneuve, made woke ideology a key part of their speech.
“Canadian values are being destroyed due to a lack of leadership and a woke movement that panders to narrow special interests,” said Michel.
Barbara added that the woke agenda “demonizes anyone who dares to disagree. If you are not woke, you are labelled a far-right extremist, a fringe radical and somehow not Canadian. Where is the common sense in that?”
Michel also defended Canada’s fathers of confederation, who have been targets of the woke mob over the last few years.
“Our fathers of confederation were not perfect, but they created a country that became the Canada that we know today.”
Former British member of the European Union parliament Daniel Hannan, Baron Hannan of Kingsclere also took aim at wokism in his speech.
He criticized Trudeau for saying that Canada is a “post-national” state without a core identity. “It’s almost like Trudeau would rather have a bland, woke, decaffeinated, vegan, alcohol-free (though not drugs-free), high-tax, high-spend, UN-compliant, social democratic blancmange.”
Hannan also took aim at the cancelling of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A Macdonald.
“As recently as 2020, there were 10 statues of Sir John A. Macdonald in this country. Now there are just two. One on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and one in Queen’s Park in Toronto. And they’re both under constant police protection.”
“Seriously though, why go after Sir John, the man who saw the potential of this country, stretching from sea to sea. What crime did he commit? He wanted Indigenous Canadians to have full voting rights. He was decades ahead of his time in trying to give the vote to women.”
“Is his offense to have lived in the wrong century? Or to have been a Tory? Or is it something more sinister? Is his real crime, in the eyes of the woke, to have created this country in the first place?”
Hanan also made a lightbulb joke about woke people. “How many wokies it takes to change a lightbulb? THAT’S NOT FUNNY!”
