Is The Gong Show Ending?

A cautious endorsement of Carney...

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I’ve been saying this for years and I’ll say it again: I’m a centrist. On some things I’m center-right and others I’m center-left but none of my positions are extreme:

· Focus on the economy

· Invest in the military. It’s a joke. I served in it 30 years ago. It was a joke then, and it’s only gotten worse.

· Get the budget under control. It might help if we stopped bribing voters with “free” services.

· Taxes are too high. You might get me to soften my stance and add “for what we get.”

· Enforce the law. Believing that the rights of law-abiding citizens should matter at least as much as those of criminals is not extreme.

· We have too much bureaucracy. Both in regulation and employment.

· Encourage alternative energy if you must but build pipelines.

· Get rid of interprovincial trade barriers (I still shake my head that this is even debated)

· Rein in immigration and visas. We have a housing crisis. How do you expect to fix it if the number of people coming in exceeds the number of homes being built?

· Government is not a good thing. It’s not a bad thing either. It’s a tool. Just like a hammer. And like a hammer it isn’t the solution to every problem.

Why I’m Mistaken For A Conservative

I get it, I’ve been criticizing Trudeau, Singh, and the Liberals for years now and so you naturally assume I’m a conservative. I criticized the Liberals because they were running things. And doing a terrible job of it. They earned my criticism. The only criticism I could level at the Conservatives was that they can’t seem to win an election.

It is no secret that I view progressive policies as ideas that only the dangerously ignorant or naive would support. We let far-left radicals, led by someone who talks like a teenage girl, run the country for too long. Put five Trudeau quotes beside five Greta Thunberg quotes and most of us would struggle to tell the difference.

If you think I’m right wing, you’re standing way over on the left and are dangerously close to falling off the edge and landing on Stalin.

Believe me or don’t. I don’t care.

More important than my politics though is this fact: I’m a Canadian. And a proud one at that. I served my country for a decade and in return I got to watch the Trudeau gong show run this country into the ground for a decade. It pissed me off. It still pisses me off.

Surprise!

I’m going to do something now that I never thought I would, I’m going to stand up for Prime Minister Carney.

I wanted a return to the center and what I’m seeing leads me to believe that is exactly what Carney is doing. Some examples:

· Elimination of the Consumer Carbon Tax - Carney signed an order-in-council reducing the consumer carbon tax to $0 effective April 1, 2025. Are there still problems? Yes, but it’s a step in the right direction.

· Reversal of Capital Gains Tax Increase - Carney reversed the Trudeau-era increase, something the Conservatives had promised to do.

· Elimination of Federal Barriers to Internal Trade - Since April 2025, Carney’s government has moved to eliminate federal barriers to interprovincial trade. A win for economic efficiency.

· Increased Defence Spending - Carney’s fiscal plan includes $18 billion over four years for defence (with $32 billion on a cash basis), aimed at bolstering national security amid global tensions.

· Support for Pipeline Projects - Carney opened the door to a pipeline project during his first week. A pragmatic approach to energy infrastructure and one that was long overdue.

Has he been perfect? No. Did he “steal” these policy ideas from the Conservatives? Yes. So what? I’m not about to criticize the guy for giving me what I want just because he wears a red tie instead of a blue one. I wanted a shift to the center and for the Liberals to be thrown out of office. But what I wanted most was competent governance. If Carney does that great. I’ll take it.

Elbows Up!

I’m reading headlines and social media posts criticizing Carney for failing to follow through on his “elbows up” campaign slogan.

Guess what?

It was a slogan.

Get over it.

If you think politicians govern based on campaign slogans, you’re naive. At best.

What’s more, slogans aren’t the basis of a sound foreign policy.

Most importantly of all, it would have been a stupid strategy. One I was opposed to from the beginning. The fact that Carney isn’t picking a fight with the US should be celebrated not criticized. We can’t win a fight, we’re too small (I won’t go into details here. If you’re interested why, it’s a bad strategy read this). That doesn’t mean we should cave to every demand or that diversifying who we trade with isn’t a good idea, it just means you should fight the battles you can win… and nobody wins a tariff war.

Criticizing Carney for not following through on the idiotic “elbows up” strategy is akin to the Democrats using the term TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) to criticize Trump because he always backs down in situations, they want him to back down in and then getting upset when he doesn’t. Pick a lane. If backing down is what you want him to do, shut up and take the win, don’t goad him into doing something you don’t want. How stupid are you guys?

All Good Things Must Come To An End

And lucky for Canadians, so do bad ones.

Is the Liberal Gong Show ending? I don’t know. Too many of the same clowns are still in positions of authority, but I like what I’m seeing so far. Or if you prefer something less enthusiast, I don’t hate it.

And after what we lived through during Canada’s lost decade, that’s high praise.

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Phil (Hoisttheblackflag) is a writer and classical liberal who, when not complaining about the Ottawa Senators, writes about politics, individual rights, government corruption/abuse and free speech. He resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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