U.S. election shows the woke silence regular joes at their peril

Work in Progress/by Ivan Morgan

I recently read about an interview with our Prime Minister where he mused that he felt there was a “silent majority” in Canada still receptive to him and his government.

About that.

First, a smart politician knows when its time to go. Harken back to the Mulroney years, when he announced it was time to retire. That was because he was loathed across Canada and polls showed he didn’t have a prayer of winning the next election. He’d had a good run, and it was time to pull the plug. He was right. His successors ran an election that saw them go from 156 federal seats to two.

A long time ago the current Prime Minister’s father, at the time also deeply unpopular, went for a long walk in a blizzard and decided it was time to retire. Methinks it’s about time for Junior to do the same.

Seems, however, he’s not going to. Seems he has faith in what he hopes is a silent majority of supporters. 

I don’t know about that. As I have said before, I get around. I talk with lots of people. Thanks to this column, lots of people talk to me. I am hearing something I have never heard before.

Of course I hear Trudeau is loathed everywhere I go. I heard that about Harper. Heard it about Mulroney. About Papa Trudeau way back in the day. Heard it all before. It seems to be the natural fate of long serving Canadian prime ministers.

What I haven’t heard before is people, usually in hushed tones, telling me they are afraid to say what they think – afraid to say how they feel about how the country is going. Afraid to speak publicly.

Trudeau talks of a “silent majority” he hopes will help him get re-elected. For the first time in my life, I wonder if I am speaking with a silenced majority.

It’s everywhere I go. I don’t count political people because… well they’re political people. I am talking about regular folk. Average people telling me they are afraid to speak up, afraid to express an opinion, because of the attacks they see others get. People are afraid of being called racist, or misogynist, or one of a number of “phobes” merely because they dare express an opinion not in lock step with the current government. A silenced majority.

We saw it in this publication last year when the editor wrote a piece wondering if immigration was getting out of control and having a negative effect on the economy. Self-righteous letters to the editor attacked his character as well as his writing (to his everlasting credit, he published those letters. Yay for freedom of the press).

I was attacked merely because I appeared in this paper! Why hadn’t I resigned in disgust? What’s the matter with me? How could I keep writing for The Shoreline?

Free speech is the foundation of our democracy. I have never come across average citizens afraid to speak their mind publicly. I have been told on numerous occasions in the past few weeks they are afraid they will be punished for doing so. 

This is not a good place to be in a democracy. When did Canada get like this?

Free speech is not a right reserved only for those who agree with you. Open and free discussion of issues is key to a healthy democracy. When did we lose sight of this?

You may think it okay to silence your detractors. It’s not. In a democracy, with free speech, you don’t silence people. You persuade them. Bring them around to your point of view. Hopefully they’ll support you.

Look what just happened in the United States. Despite all the name-calling, fearmongering, and out-and out lying, people quietly went to the ballot box and had their say. Turns out you can silence people publicly, but not at the ballot box. Putin knows this. Mr. Xi of China knows this. That’s why those countries aren’t democratic. The governments in those countries only want things to go their way. That’s why they silence their populace.

We are supposed to be doing better in Canada.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com