Who is ‘mainstream’?

The conventions of the Liberal and Conservative parties, which were both held in March, provided not just an opportunity to look at the differences between the parties, but also to better understand the media that covered them. In the eyes of journalists, the Liberals, who considered legalizing same-sex “marriage,” marijuana and prostitution, are not merely progressive, but “mainstream;” that is, they represent the values of the average Canadian. The Conservatives – who endorsed a policy opposing same-sex “marriage” and had a civil discussion on other moral issues – on the other hand, are extreme. Never mind that a majority of Canadians, perhaps as many as two-thirds, oppose redefining marriage and there is anything but a consensus on abortion in this country.

What does this interpretation of the two conventions by the media tell us? Simply put, the mainstream media are simply out of touch. What the reporters for the CBC and Globe and Mail, and editors of the Toronto Star, consider “mainstream” seldom reflects the values of middle- and working-class Canadians. Instead, it represents the views of an insulated elite – academics, spokespersons for the legal and medical professions, politicians and their advisers, Bay Street and, of course, other journalists. The editorial boards of Canada’s “mainstream” papers rail against the “intolerance” of social conservatism and force pro-life and pro-family Canadians on the defensive by attacking the notion that it is we who are forcing Christian values – that is, the virtues necessary for Western civilization to grow and succeed for two millennia – upon an unwilling population. In reality, it is the elites who are seeking to undo the existing order and impose their own liberal values upon Canadians.

Consider the issues discussed at the Liberal convention. There is no clamour for the legalization of prostitution, yet the youth wing of the Liberals was almost successful in getting the party to endorse “the oldest profession.” There was no national movement to have the rights and rites of marriage extended to homosexual couples prior to the Liberal government’s co-operation with the courts to impose a radical redefinition of an age-old institution upon our nation. Even now, a minority of Canadians support same-sex “marriage.” Readily available and legal pot? While the issue is being discussed, most Canadians are concerned about the availability of drugs and the possible effects on their children and families.

Now, Ottawa is pushing a nationalized, universal daycare scheme, despite the fact that less than one in seven parents currently has a young child in institutional daycare. Ken Dryden, the minister for social development, says daycare is a “reality” that governments must accept, and apparently facilitate. In reality, his multi-billion-dollar program will make it easier for parents to abandon their kids to the care of strangers. Perhaps, it will even pressure parents who have resisted doing so by signalling that institutional daycare is the only socially acceptable form of childcare or by pushing more women into the workforce, because of the higher taxes that will be necessary to pay for the massive program. One can only imagine why the government would be expanding institutional daycare when most parents choose other options. Could it be the government is ideologically opposed to parents caring for their own children? The academics who have Dryden’s ear certainly are.

Time and again, the elite of the Liberal party has foisted upon its membership, and then the nation, a radical agenda, all while having its social experiments labelled by media allies as “mainstream,” “tolerant” and merely a reflection of “the way things are.”

Meanwhile, the values of most citizens are denigrated as intolerant, extreme and un-Canadian by the elite. Too many Canadians feel either guilty for holding views not deemed acceptable by our media and political superiors, or they become needlessly defensive about holding such views. But it is not those who fight in defence of the sanctity of human life, the integrity of the family and the uniqueness of the opposite-sex definition of marriage who should be on the defensive.

It is the elite who want to radically alter society, the elite who are foisting new schemes upon our nation and the elite who are imposing their cultural values on the country. But this reality is obscured by the fact that the liberal elite govern the nation, rule the courts, run the universities and control the media. They have, in fact, re-written laws and history in service of this agenda. While it is new, it is anything but mainstream. It is time for Canadians to assert themselves. We must take our country back from the judges, politicians, reporters and other elites that seek to remake the nation in their own, liberal image.