Canadians wanted a reset, not a revolution

Toronto Star

30-04-2025

On Monday, Canadians went to the polls demanding something different — but not too different.
The election of Mark Carney as prime minister, the ouster of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, says Canadians wanted a reset, not a revolution.
We were clearly over former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — no offence, but familiarity breeds contempt. The more we were exposed to his government, the more likely we were to find faults and lose respect. After almost 10 years of power, Trudeau's Liberals made missteps and flat-out mistakes. Canadians wanted something new. When he formally stepped down in March, Carney became Liberal leader and prime minister. This week, the public confirmed it.
A globally respected economist with centrist appeal, Carney was the safe and strong alternative to Poilievre's populist politics, which was too close to that of U.S. President Donald Trump. Monday's election wasn't about embracing a bold new vision. It was about battening down the hatches against economic uncertainty and stopping a Conservatism that reminded too many of Trumpism.
Unfortunately, the NDP were sacrificed at the altar of strategic voting — and maybe a little of that familiarity fatigue crept in as well.
According to the Elections Canada, more than 19 million Canadians (67.4 per cent) — out of 28.5 million eligible voters — cast their ballots up from 63 per cent in 2022. Canadians clearly wanted to have their say in who would run the country and how it would be run.
The Conservatives gained more seats, but their leader lost his long-held seat in the Carleton riding. Maybe it was Poilievre's personality that rubbed people the wrong way — he is very much an attack dog. For some, it was his war on 'wokeness,' which felt too much like a mission to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in all institutions.
Poilievre's definition of 'woke' was always fuzzy that he couldn't exactly put into words. Recently, he said to The Canadian Press, 'Very simply, after a lost Liberal decade of dividing Canadians, turning people against each other and weakening our Armed Forces, we need to put Canada first.' Poilievre also mentioned the Liberals' 'woke criminal justice agenda' and 'woke agenda on spending.'
The term 'woke' began as a term in African American communities meaning awareness of racial injustice, but over time it expanded to cover broader social justice issues.
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But for many voters, the culture war wasn't enough to win his seat.
Overall, the Conservatives did end up more seats than in 2022. This wasn't a landslide Liberal win that signalled a full rejection of the right.
This close win says that the Cons tapped into to something real. Canadians do want more affordable housing, lower inflation and less taxes. That's clear. What we didn't want was what we are seeing in Trump's first 100 days in office: confusion, chaos and constant conflict.
Now, as Carney selects his first elected cabinet and executes his first mandate, the hard work begins. Canadians chose competence over potential chaos and pragmatism over populism. We rejected extremism, but we didn't offer the Liberals a blank cheque.
Nope, it's understanding that we, Canadians, don't want the populism of Trump — the culture wars of us vs. them, anti-immigration and anti-intellectualism — getting a stranglehold on our values and our politics. We do need change. The same ol' same ol' won't cut it. We also need a strong hand to keep our country moving forward.
And we can't forget that the NDP has long been the conscience of Canada. Their loss of party status isn't just the result of a bad campaign — it feels like a national sacrifice.
We wanted a reset, not a rerun. Now it's up to Carney to prove we made the right call.
With continued #elbowsup.