Copy of Piffle, Parents, and an American Invasion

Plus: The mood in Canada

Justin Trudeau is stepping down as Liberal leader after a decade in power (though there were ten other times he could have done so). Stephen Maher , in “Prepare for the Meanest Election in Canadian History,” explored shifts in sentiment that threatened the prime minister’s position:

In November 2023, pollster Frank Graves did a survey and was shocked by the grim national mood. Seven out of ten Canadians felt the country was moving in the wrong direction, the worst score Graves has seen in thirty years of polling. Three quarters thought the world was becoming more dangerous. And not even half said they had a strong connection to Canada. Canadians were increasingly distrustful of institutions, worried about political polarization, disinformation, and their own finances, and increasingly skeptical about immigration. “When you look at the collective expression of fundamental barometers of societal health and cohesion, this constitutes a legitimacy crisis,” says Graves. “It’s not sustainable.” [Read more]

Donald Trump has talked about annexing a lot of things lately, including the entire country of Canada. Invasion has been an anxiety for writers here for decades, as Robert McGill found in “When America Declared War on Us”:

The most notorious fantasy of US aggression was Richard Rohmer’s 1973 novel, Ultimatum. A political thriller set in 1980, the narrative features an unnamed US president, facing a natural-gas shortage in his country, issuing an ultimatum to the Canadian government: agree to a continental resource-sharing plan or face severe economic sanctions. When Parliament unanimously rejects the ultimatum, the President moves to annex Canada via an invasion force. … Reviewers didn’t admire the book. Robert Fulford characterized it as “a dull, brief little novel with cardboard characters.” By the end of 1973, however, Ultimatum was the bestselling novel in Canada. [Read more]

Pierre Poilievre recently had a nearly two-hour tête-à-tête with Jordan Peterson, proponent of "traditional values" and champion of the all-beef diet. For more on Peterson, read Ira Wells ’s piece “The Professor of Piffle”:

[Peterson is not] the author of any lasting work of scholarship, the originator of any important idea, or a public intellectual of any scientific credibility or moral seriousness. Peterson’s sole discovery is that “postmodernism” can be usefully exploited alongside the more familiar, established populist scare tactics. His message, as the intellectual guru of the alt-right, is that humanity’s natural hierarchies are under attack, that the future of Western civilization hangs in the balance of this “war of ideas.” [Read more]

Canada is pausing permanent residency sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents. Sheima Benembarek recently looked at contradictions within immigration policy when it comes to families:

Immigration tends to be framed as a solution to this country’s aging population and labour and productivity challenges. Newcomers make up a third of all business owners in Canada who employ paid staff and create jobs in all sectors. But when immigrants are untethered from their loved ones, they can’t be expected to be productive members of society. A policy that keeps family members apart has obvious humanitarian and mental health consequences. But there is also a case to be made that slowing immigration sponsorship is damaging to the economy itself. [Read more]

Check out our books podcast, What Happened Next, hosted by Nathan Whitlock . This week’s conversation is with Leigh Nash , co-publisher of Assembly Press.

Read a poem by Matt Rader: “We Knew What Was Coming”

Read a short story by David Bezmozgis: “Childhood”

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