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Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Canada Fulfills the Dystopian Vision

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Lee Harding

The country our ancestors built is being torn down. The welfare state runs on massive deficits, increasing our public fiscal slavery. Cancel culture kills free speech. The government funds the Anti-Hate Network to oppose religious conservatives, Ā which negatively Ā stereotypes them.

Poet T.S. Elliot once wrote, ā€œThis is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.ā€ Canada has fallen but has all the illusion of being what it always was. Many Canadians fail to see a dystopian future foretold decades ago has arrived. Our institutions are failing us.

In Orwellian fashion, The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has transformed Canadian values in the pretense of upholding them. They eliminated federal laws that made Sunday a day of rest, forced the provision of abortion and euthanasia in the name of the security of the person, and banned prayer from city hall meetings in the name of religious freedom.

The pandemic cranked the judges’ distorted amp right up to 11. In B.C., Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson struck down public health orders banning protests, but quizzicallyĀ maintained the banĀ on religious assembly. Elsewhere, the hypocrisy just continued, laws or no laws.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could bow the knee at Black Lives Matter protests that exceeded gathering limits, while those who did so for church services or rallies against mandates were prosecuted–or even persecuted. The Walmarts and Superstores were packed, while the churches and small businesses sat empty.

Doctors who prescribed ivermectin, one of the safest and widely effective drugs of all time, faced medical censure–even if their actions saved lives. Medical colleges became bodies that betray the profession’s values by banning medical opinions and the off-label use of drugs when it contradicts poor policies based on weak evidence.

The media, which should have been pushing back at this nonsense, went along with the charade as if it was the right thing to do. Any perspective that could foment doubt against the recommendations and policies of those in power was banned. Such is the practice of authoritarian countries, which is what Canada became.

As law professor Bruce Pardy has noted, Canada has shifted from the rule of law to the rule by laws. Here, legal systems manage the public and the law and courts fail to call the governments to account. A rally that’s permitted one minute can be trampled by the Emergencies Act the next, whileĀ  donors to a protest see their bank accounts seized. Did you lose your job for refusing a vaccine? Too bad. Oh, and you don’t get EI either.

The pandemic and its fear subsided, but neither sober reflection nor an adequate reckoning arrived. People kept getting COVID after the vaccinations, yet some are getting booster shots to this day. Analysts such as Denis Rancourt, credit public responses, including vaccines, for worldwide excess mortality of 17 million. Yet, the bombshell falls like a dud, either ignored or diffused by dismissive ā€œfact-checkers.ā€Ā  The life expectancy of Canadians dropped two full years and barely a shoulder was shrugged.

Even our elections fail to inspire confidence. In many municipalities, programmable computers count the votes and no one checks or scrutinizes the paper ballots. In other cases, paper ballots don’t exist–it’s all done on screen. A computer gets the trust a single individual would never receive.

The country our ancestors built is being torn down. The welfare state runs on massive deficits, increasing our public fiscal slavery. Cancel culture kills free speech. The government funds the Anti-Hate Network to oppose religious conservatives, Ā which negatively Ā stereotypes them.

Gender ideology, now entrenched in law and schools, is facilitating a wedge between traditional values and woke values and between parents and their children. It even challenges the objective truth of biological reality. Truth has become what we feel, overriding rational norms, facts, and our inherited society.

Like George Orwell’sĀ 1984, if the government says 2 + 2 = 5, then that’s what it is, and anyone who fails to accept it becomes an enemy of the state. Orwell’s novel envisioned a time when false propaganda like ā€œwar is peaceā€ and ā€œfreedom is slaveryā€ would prevail. The dystopia has arrived. Anyone who refers to someone by their biological sex is accused of misgendering hate.

Unfortunately,the dark vision of Aldous Huxley is also unfolding. In 1958, the author ofĀ Brave New WorldĀ RevisitedĀ predicted,

ā€œBy means of ever more effective methods of mind manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms – elections, parliaments, supreme courts, and all the rest – will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the shows as they see fit.ā€

It’s especially sad to watch our elderly maintain trust in government and mainstream media narratives when the days they deserved it have left us. Like petrified wood, the forms of our institutions remain but their composition has entirely changed. Our democratic, legal, and media institutions, our schools and hospitals, are failing us badly.

Canada has fallen, but many Canadians can’t see it because there’s no rubble.

Lee HardingĀ is a Research Fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

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Hudson’s Bay Bid Raises Red Flags Over Foreign Influence

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Scott McGregor

A billionaire’s retail ambition might also serve Beijing’s global influence strategy. Canada must look beyond the storefront

When B.C. billionaire Weihong Liu publicly declared interest in acquiring Hudson’s Bay stores, it wasn’t just a retail story—it was a signal flare in an era where foreign investment increasingly doubles as geopolitical strategy.

The Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1670, remains an enduring symbol of Canadian heritage. While its commercial relevance has waned in recent years, its brand is deeply etched into the national identity. That’s precisely why any potential acquisition, particularly by an investor with strong ties to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), deserves thoughtful, measured scrutiny.

Liu, a prominent figure in Vancouver’s Chinese-Canadian business community, announced her interest in acquiring several Hudson’s Bay stores on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (RedNote), expressing a desire to ā€œmake the Bay great again.ā€ Though revitalizing a Canadian retail icon may seem commendable, the timing and context of this bid suggest a broader strategic positioning—one that aligns with the People’s Republic of China’s increasingly nuanced approach to economic diplomacy, especially in countries like Canada that sit at the crossroads of American and Chinese spheres of influence.

This fits a familiar pattern. In recent years, we’ve seen examples of Chinese corporate involvement in Canadian cultural and commercial institutions, such as Huawei’s past sponsorship of Hockey Night in Canada. Even as national security concerns were raised by allies and intelligence agencies, Huawei’s logo remained a visible presence during one of the country’s most cherished broadcasts. These engagements, though often framed as commercially justified, serve another purpose: to normalize Chinese brand and state-linked presence within the fabric of Canadian identity and daily life.

What we may be witnessing is part of a broader PRC strategy to deepen economic and cultural ties with Canada at a time when U.S.-China relations remain strained. As American tariffs on Canadian goods—particularly in aluminum, lumber and dairy—have tested cross-border loyalties, Beijing has positioned itself as an alternative economic partner. Investments into cultural and heritage-linked assets like Hudson’s Bay could be seen as a symbolic extension of this effort to draw Canada further into its orbit of influence, subtly decoupling the country from the gravitational pull of its traditional allies.

From my perspective, as a professional with experience in threat finance, economic subversion and political leveraging, this does not necessarily imply nefarious intent in each case. However, it does demand a conscious awareness of how soft power is exercised through commercial influence, particularly by state-aligned actors. As I continue my research in international business law, I see how investment vehicles, trade deals and brand acquisitions can function as instruments of foreign policy—tools for shaping narratives, building alliances and shifting influence over time.

Canada must neither overreact nor overlook these developments. Open markets and cultural exchange are vital to our prosperity and pluralism. But so too is the responsibility to preserve our sovereignty—not only in the physical sense, but in the cultural and institutional dimensions that shape our national identity.

Strategic investment review processes, cultural asset protections and greater transparency around foreign corporate ownership can help strike this balance. We should be cautious not to allow historically Canadian institutions to become conduits, however unintentionally, for geopolitical leverage.

In a world where power is increasingly exercised through influence rather than force, safeguarding our heritage means understanding who is buying—and why.

Scott McGregorĀ is the managing partner and CEO of Close Hold Intelligence Consulting.

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Canada Urgently Needs A Watchdog For Government Waste

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Ian Madsen

From overstaffed departments to subsidy giveaways, Canadians are paying a high price for government excess

Not all the Trump administration’s policies are dubious. One is very good, in theory at least: the Department of Government Efficiency. While that term could be an oxymoron, like ā€˜political wisdom,’ if DOGE is useful, so may be a Canadian version.

DOGE aims to identify wasteful, duplicative, unnecessary or destructive government programs and replace outdated data systems. It also seeks to lower overall costs and ensure mechanisms are in place to evaluate proposed programs for effectiveness and value for money. This can, and usually does, involve eliminating some departments and, eventually, thousands of jobs. Some new roles within DOGE may need to become permanent.

The goal in the U.S. is to lower annual operating costs and ensure that the growth in government spending is lower than in revenues. Washington’s spending has exploded in recent years. The U.S. federal deficit exceeds six per cent of gross domestic product. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, annual debt service cost is escalating unsustainably.

Canada’s latest budgetĀ deficit of $61.9 billion in fiscal 2023–24 is about two per cent of GDP, which seems minor compared to our neighbour. However, it adds to the federal debt of $1.236 trillion, about 41 per cent of our approximate $3 trillion GDP. Ottawa’s public accounts show that expenses are 17.8 per cent of GDP, up from about 14 per cent just eight years ago. Interest on the escalating debt were 10.2 per cent of revenues in the most recent fiscal year, up from just five per cent a mere two years ago.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) continually identifiesĀ dubious or frivolous spendingĀ and outright waste or extravagance: ā€œ$30 billion in subsidies to multinational corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Stellantis and Northvolt. Federal corporate subsidies totalled $11.2 billion in 2022 alone. Shutting down the federal government’s seven regional development agencies would save taxpayers an estimated $1.5 billion annually.ā€

The CTF also noted that Ottawa hired 108,000 more staff in the past eight years at an average annual cost of over $125,000. Hiring in line with population growth would have added only 35,500, saving about $9 billion annually. The scale of waste is staggering. Canada Post, the CBC and Via Rail lose, in total, over $5 billion a year. For reference, $1 billion would buy Toyota RAV4s for over 25,600 families.

Ottawa also duplicates provincial government functions, intruding on their constitutional authority. Shifting those programs to the provinces, in health, education, environment and welfare, could save many more billions of dollars per year. Bad infrastructure decisions lead toĀ failuresĀ such as the $33.4 billion squandered on what should have been a relatively inexpensive expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline—a case where hiring better staff could have saved money. Terrible federal IT systems, exemplified by the $4 billionĀ Phoenix payroll horror, are another failure. The Green Slush Fund misallocated nearly $900 million.

Ominously, theĀ fast-growingĀ Old Age Supplement and Guaranteed Income Security programs are unfunded, unlike the Canada Pension Plan. Their costs are already roughly equal to the deficit and could become unsustainable.

Canada is sleepwalking toward financial perdition. A Canadian version of DOGE—Canada Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Team, or CAETT—is vital. The Auditor General Office admirably identifies waste and bad performance, but is not proactive, nor does it have enforcement powers. There is currently no mechanism to evaluate or end unnecessary programs to ensure Canadians will have a prosperous and secure future. CAETT could fill that role.

Ian MadsenĀ is the Senior Policy Analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

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