MAGA With a Maple Leaf

When Politicians Manufacture Outrage Instead of Solving Problems

I grew up Catholic.

Church most Sundays.
Stand, sit, kneel. Stand, sit, kneel again.
Sing along with the band—yeah, our church had a band.

And for all the years I spent there, I do not remember politics ever being part of the experience.

No sermons about elections.
No lectures about how “real Catholics” should vote.
No petitions handed out after mass.
No activist campaigns disguised as faith.

The priests would often finish service by blessing all people of all faiths, not just Catholics.

Being Catholic, as I understood it, meant showing up, saying your prayers, taking part in the rituals, and trying to live your life as a decent person.

Was it perfect? Of course not.

I got bullied in catechism for being the only public school kid there.
And you could definitely tell which priests got a little too enthusiastic about the sacramental wine.

But politics?
Politics stayed out of the pulpit.

Even abortion—arguably one of Catholicism’s clearest moral positions—was barely ever mentioned.

So when I see politicians trying to drag anti-abortion rhetoric back into public life, I can’t help but ask:

Who exactly is this for?

Because it doesn’t seem to be for the average Canadian.

If you think abortion is wrong, fine.
Don’t have one.

But the idea that your personal beliefs should dictate the laws everyone else lives under is not morality—it’s arrogance.

And let’s stop pretending otherwise.

This issue has been politically settled in Canada for decades.
The public has moved on.

Yet here we are, with Conservative MPs putting forward sloppy petitions quoting Roe v. Wade—an American ruling with no relevance to Canadian law—trying to reignite debate over an issue most Canadians have not been asking to revisit.

Why?

Because when politicians run out of real solutions, they fall back on culture war theatre.

They poke old wounds.
They revive divisive issues.
They weaponize morality.
They stir outrage because outrage is easier than leadership.

No one trying to pay rent is begging Parliament to reopen abortion debates.
No one buying overpriced groceries is asking for this.
No one waiting in overcrowded emergency rooms thinks this should be the priority.

People are worried about housing.
Healthcare.
Affordability.
The future.

Meanwhile, some politicians think the best use of their time is dragging out decades-old social debates because a loud minority still wants to fight them.

It is unserious.
And frankly, it is transparent.

Because this constant attempt to import American-style MAGA politics into Canada is not leadership—it is desperation.

They see how outrage politics energizes people in the United States, and they want to replicate it here.

But Canadians are not Americans.

We do not want every election turned into a religious shouting match.
We do not want Parliament treated like a church basement debate club.
We do not want politicians playing moral crusader while the country struggles with actual problems.

We want competence.
We want solutions.
We want adults in the room.

A politician’s job is not to impose their personal beliefs on the public.
It is not to use office as a pulpit.
It is not to tell citizens what values they should have.

Their job is to represent the will of the people.

And when they ignore real issues in favour of divisive ideological nonsense, they reveal exactly what they are:

Not leaders.
Not serious policymakers.
Just people chasing power through manufactured outrage.

Because people who want to govern solve problems.

People who want power create them.