Canada's National Sin

David Parker, April 11 2025

There is a pervasive sense of disbelief among Canadian conservatives. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard phrases like, “I don’t believe the polls,” “Canadians can’t be this stupid!” or “How could they elect the Liberals again?” This is a stage of grief—denial. And it’s being actively weaponized by the CPC war room, which is now staging supporters with banners and shirts that read, “Do you believe the polls?” Any serious political organizer, campaign manager, or activist knows that Canadian poll aggregators are accurate. But Jenni Byrne and Pierre Poilievre have decided that the only way to maintain morale ahead of this election is to lean into a narrative that casts doubt on the polling industry.

It's understandable to feel grief and shock that Canadians would reward the Liberals with another mandate after a decade of decline. Anyone with a basic grasp of economics can see the nation is in trouble. A country where children are worse off than their parents has lost its way. Immigration policies, when combined with radical environmentalism, have impoverished the youth. Conservatives see a broken country and want to believe it can be fixed by electing a Conservative government—or at the very least, they want to punish those responsible for its decline. So when polls contradict this hope, they simply refuse to believe them.

What’s ironic is that just six months ago, conservatives were eagerly sharing every poll they could find. Those polls showed a deeply unpopular Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, and a clear path to a Conservative majority under Poilievre. Back then, it was progressives who dismissed the polls, some even suggesting the firms were controlled by conservatives or their allies. Now that the numbers have shifted, the roles have reversed. Conservatives are making the exact same claims.

Rather than questioning the validity of the data, we should ask the more difficult question: what could cause such a dramatic shift in public sentiment? The answer is not complicated, though it is deeply discouraging—Canadians are among the most politically uneducated and apathetic citizens in the developed world. That apathy is our national sin.

This apathy is measurable. When Mark Carney was elected leader of the Liberal Party—and by extension, Prime Minister—only 151,899 people voted. That’s 0.3% of Canada’s population. Just one in every 330 Canadians participated in the election that decided the country’s leader. Even at the height of “Poilievre Mania” in 2022, when Trudeau had alienated millions through his COVID policies, only 417,635 people voted in the Conservative leadership race. That’s about 1% of the population—the largest leadership race in Canadian history, and still 99% of Canadians sat it out.

Compare this to the United States. In 2024, the Republican primary—essentially a leadership race held every four years—saw 22,264,875 votes cast. Even though it was a foregone conclusion that Donald Trump would win (he didn’t even attend the debates), more than 5% of Americans still participated. That’s five times the level of engagement seen in Canada.

If you want to understand why Canadians keep voting for a government that is impoverishing them, look no further than this: most Canadians are disengaged, ignorant of how their political system works, and wholly uninterested in participating in it. For them, politics is reduced to a vague emotional reaction to a leader’s image. This isn’t a uniquely Canadian phenomenon—it’s becoming more common throughout the West—but in Canada, it’s particularly pronounced.

This apathy has bred a politics of personality cults. That too is not new. In the Book of Samuel, we read about the people of Israel demanding that Samuel appoint a king, like the other nations. Samuel is dismayed—they already have a King: God. But God replies:

“Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.”

God saw their desire for a human king not as a rejection of Samuel, but of divine authority. It was, at its root, a desire to avoid personal responsibility. The people didn’t want to govern themselves; they wanted someone to blame, someone to carry the burden. They wanted a King.

This same instinct drives modern political culture. It flourishes only in societies ignorant of history and forgetful of the sacrifices required to build free and representative governments. Only apathetic and lazy citizens place all their hope in a single leader. Truly free people seek the freedom to solve their own problems. Canadians are not such a people. They are overtaxed, overregulated, and increasingly socialist in their outlook. They want the government to fix everything. And when that fails, they demand a social safety net to protect them from the consequences of their own decisions.

This is what makes it so difficult for freedom-loving, entrepreneurial, or even just personally responsible people to grasp the state of Canada. But this ethos—that the government exists to take care of us—is the dominant one. It’s why Pierre Poilievre’s message resonates with millions, yet repulses the majority. His values—smaller government, lower taxes, more individual freedom—do not align with Canadian values. Canadians want a caretaker. And they see in Mark Carney the kind of "king" they can believe in.

But here’s the worst part: it’s all an illusion. Leaders are not the ones actually governing the country. No individual can possibly manage the complexity of a modern state. Real power lies in the hands of staffers, bureaucrats, ministers, and so-called experts—none of whom are elected. The leaders people place their faith in are merely avatars. Symbols. And those who truly run the country are quite happy to let the public believe that salvation lies in a leader. It’s a noble lie—one that keeps the machinery of government humming while the people remain asleep.

The brutal truth is this: no leader—left or right—can fix a country whose people have given up on personal responsibility. Apathy is not just a political problem. It is a moral one. And it is Canada’s national sin.

If there is any hope for this country, it lies in a renewed sense of responsibility—personal, civic, and national. We must reject the lie that someone else will fix it. No leader, no party, no election will save us unless we are willing to save ourselves. That means showing up. It means joining a party, voting in leadership races, attending local meetings, running for office, or at the very least, understanding how power works in this country. Canada doesn’t need more spectators—we have millions. What we need are citizens.

The world is run by the people who show up.