What Happened to the Vote? (aka: The Funeral for Civil Discourse — now with extra pitchforks) Once upon a time, your vote was between you and a stubby pencil behind a cardboard screen.
Now? It’s between you, 600 conspiracy threads, your aunt’s Facebook posts written entirely in CAPS LOCK, and a guy livestreaming from his truck saying Canada “isn’t even a country anymore.” How did we get here? Maybe it’s because we used to treat voting like a civic duty. Now it’s a personality trait. A team jersey. A litmus test for who gets blocked, unfriended, or uninvited to Easter dinner. And here’s the thing: It’s totally fine to land at different places on the political spectrum. That’s democracy. That’s freedom. That’s literally the point. But radicalization? That’s not a belief. That’s a breakdown. It’s when your opinion builds a bunker. It’s when you stop voting for something and start raging against anyone who thinks differently. It’s not “I disagree with you.” It’s “you’re the reason Canada is dying.” And at that point, you’re not debating—you’re detonating. This didn’t happen by accident. Our politicians figured out that anger sells better than policy. Fear gets more likes than facts. And they handed us torches instead of ballots.
Now, here’s the truth I’ve been sitting with: At my core, this fight—for me—is about battling anger politics. Maybe Pierre Poilievre is just the messenger, but what he’s tapping into… it’s not just frustration. It’s something deeper. Louder. Meaner. It’s fear.
It’s resentment. It’s disenfranchised voices turned into digital mobs. Sometimes it feels like radical religion, other times like economic despair. But it’s never just policy—it’s personal. And poisonous. And somewhere in the background, like a bloated orange spectre, floats Donald Trump—still holding rallies like it’s 2016, still confusing cruelty with charisma, still inspiring wannabe strongmen across borders like he’s the Colonel Sanders of authoritarianism. His greatest export wasn’t policy. It was permission. Permission to say the quiet part loud. To replace facts with feelings. To swap debate for derangement. And now we’ve got Canadian knock-offs trying to rebrand rage as leadership.
So yes—vote. Be passionate. Be proud. But if your vote needs a helmet and body armour just to show up in public… maybe it’s not democracy we’re defending. Maybe it’s just our pride wrapped in barbed wire. And since we’re a full day away from the French debate and an extra one from the English, maybe—just maybe—we can try something wild: Tolerance Tuesday. Bite your tongue. Sit on your hands. Resist the urge to call your cousin a fascist because of a lawn sign. Let’s see what happens when we log off the rage machine and tune into the actual debates. Worst case? You survive 24 hours without melting down in the comments. Best case? Maybe we learn we’re still capable of choosing reason over rage. Even if we have to do it with clenched teeth and one eye twitching.You remember we’re still a country worth fighting for—not just fighting about.
Nancy's Notes 