I imagine it’s hard to be an optimist these days, never having been one myself.
It’s not that I’m a pessimist either, I just believe there’s a middle ground between hope and despair where realists live to rain equitably on parades and pity parties. We’re the skeptics, stoics and insufferable “well, actually” types who can seemingly argue all sides of every issue.
With that disclaimer out there, I really do believe future historians will consider 2024 to be a crux year for civil society, up there with humanity’s worst years... 1929... 1939... and whatever year Elon Musk was born.
It will be remembered as the year where misinformed and angry people around the world voted for oligarchs, fascists and propagandists to save them from made-up threats.
Yes, I know what those words mean. No, I don’t think I’m being dramatic.
It didn’t happen organically. The current tense situation is the culmination of years of plotting behind the scenes to create an alternative narrative within society, with alternative facts to rile up all those imaginary victims of progress. Manufacture a big enough fake crisis and it turns out people really will enthusiastically vote against their best interests.
In short, we’re being duped. Media and politicians have us laser-focused on a fractional number of struggling trans kids or the price of eggs instead of critical issues like climate change, wars, the growing wealth divide, and so on—all things that have far more effect on prices than “woke” liberalism or the beleaguered carbon tax.
The instigators of our current discontent have bought up most of media and social media, stoked fear and anger, normalized gross incivility towards political opposites, and turned people against governments and institutions that have served us well for generations. The one media outlet they can’t buy, our CBC, is being slated for defunding despite the fact that 70 per cent of Canadians oppose that.
One recent example of weaponizing a false narrative came courtesy of a recent University of Calgary study that proved carbon taxes had a negligible impact on inflation or food costs, despite conservative politicians and editorialists across this country loudly insisting otherwise for more than a year.
Before the carbon tax it was China’s interference in our election, but that scandal faded when the intelligence came out and all parties were implicated. Before that it was the housing crisis, but conservatives lost interest after government announced billions for housing programs—programs conservatives aren’t allowed to support even if it helps in their ridings. Tomorrow we will probably be back to immigrants, although this time it will probably be about how there’s not enough people to ease the worker shortage.
We live in one of the highest-functioning, most educated and most prosperous countries on the planet, yet almost half of people think it’s broken because it’s not working perfectly for them. We have real problems, no question, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed without blowing everything up.
Which brings me to 2025. Buckle up, hosers.
Trump, incredibly, will be president again. If we take him and his cabinet of billionaires and multimillionaires at their word, we’re going to see new tariffs on trade, the possible dismantling of institutions like NATO, the reversal of climate change measures, possibly a migrant crisis, and more. Canadians will struggle. The cost of living will rise, our dollar and purchasing power will drop, unemployment will creep back up, and we will be in our first recession in 16 years.
Why would billionaires start a recession, you might ask? Because when you have money, recessions create opportunities to buy up companies, eliminate competition, privatize services, and make people and government more dependent on them to provide taxes and jobs. That’s what happened in 2008 when the U.S. went from five major investment banks to three and hedge funds bought up tens of thousands of private homes to repurpose as rentals.
There’s even a threat to our sovereignty as Trump “jokes” daily about making Canada the 51st state. (He’s not joking.)
The mayo on the poop sandwich is that 2025 is an election year in Canada, probably sooner than later given the current climate. At a time where the country needs to be unified against coming hardships, our politicians are going to be at one another’s throats. You wouldn’t think it could get any worse than our provincial premiers—including B.C. Premier David Eby—galloping madly off in all directions in response to tariff threats instead of coming up with a united Team Canada approach, but somehow it will be. It’s going to be bad.
This is easily the darkest New Year’s Eve column I’ve written in 25 years contributing to Pique. Sorry. But realists know that hoping for the best is no substitute for preparing for the worst.
Right now, the best way to prepare is to celebrate the new year. Party with friends and family. Go skiing. Make resolutions to learn things and improve yourself—and keep them. Push down that uneasy feeling that’s probably growing in your gut. Unplug for a few days. Come into the new year energized and ready to push back against terrible ideas.
And who knows? Maybe 2025 will become known as the year that sanity returned and people took their countries back.
