Trump’s big lie is about election fraud. Canada’s big lie is about equalization.
Both are weapons aimed at harming democracy.
Claims of fraud in the 2020 US election are still widely promoted by US Republicans, actively seeding the minds of their followers with a dangerous lie. If the allegations were supported by evidence, even one of more than 60 different court cases on the topic wouldn’t have been lost so spectacularly. But the point isn’t to be able to prove anything. The point is to drive already belligerent partisans into feeling that actions like those of January 6th are justified. The goal is to undermine a democracy in which they cannot win honestly. Just as the USA has a concerted effort to destroy the unity of the country from within, Canada’s right wing keeps observing them, taking notes, and emulating. While American politics is being kicked over and set on fire by a big lie that any election the right loses must be illegitimate by definition, Canadian politics has a big lie as well, and the oil happy premier of Canada’s Texas is busily pumping fuel into it and ready to ignite. It all revolves around a program that perpetual grievance manufacturing has steadily turned into arguably the most radioactive single word in Canadian politics: Equalization.
