Lean into the wind

"All these projects — our very acts of Canadian renewal — are not dimmed by federal fortunes."

(Hauling Job Sturges House, 1979. David Blackwood.)

Winter has arrived, carrying on its back a GDP per capita growing for the first time in years.

The polls have stayed largely the same, as “our children beg to go back to the way it used to be.”

The Liberals continue headlong in their backroom quest to lure floor-crossers for hire, and a majority by other means should be expected come end of January and the Official Opposition’s Calgary convention. And yet, such dealings do not unmake a movement. There are still green shoots for those with eyes to see.

British Columbia is poised to play spoiler for those hoping to pretend these are still the Trudeau years, with Mainstreet polling already showing a B.C. Conservative Party under interim leadership having surged back ahead of the mud-hut wing of the NDP.

No matter who that leader will be — and if it’s Aaron Gunn, there’s a very real chance that protracted courtship ends in a byelection loss federally and a cemented Carney-Liberal majority — no province would gain more than Alberta, who would suddenly find a key ally willing to move their pipelines to the coast, avoiding the potential need to detour through Montana. (Some ‘Team Canada’ we turned out to be.)

On immigration, the federal Liberals, to their credit, are saying some of the right things, but those words are slippery. Numbers are improving, and yet “it’s going to take ages to bring them down.” Worse, still, there are limited plans to enforce deportations for the millions coming up on expiring visas from the Sean Fraser and Marc Miller waves of foreign-student fraud and rampant TFWP abuse.

As I highlighted before Immigration Committee weeks ago, “Our young and working aged are in direct competition with north of three-million visitors, many in the low-wage and low-skill stream, and we need an outflow plan beyond just the honour system.”

'We need an [immigration] outflow plan beyond just the honour system'

Credit to Michelle Rempel Garner for her dogged work on that file, credit to the Jason Kenneys, Howard Anglins, and Michael Bonners of the world, who once so strongly shepherded that file, and who witnessed first hand the early problems with the TFWP and its potential for exploitation. Ten years into Official Opposition, and while that modern apparatus hasn’t always gotten the file right, they’re again on the right track, and there are powerful lobbying forces a mass-immigration-weary public likely takes for granted as an adversary. We give out safe supply to lesser addicts than our business lobby now addicted to cheap and exploitable labour. Nevertheless, they must be cut off cold turkey. If non-competitive businesses who refuse to compete for Canadian talent have to go out of business—so be it. Tough. Try being one of Canada’s record youth unemployed.

And on the momentum front — the movement front — Canada’s common-sense oriented should take solace in the fact that even if federal fortunes are years away from absolution, following the rug-pull that was “elbows up” (and, yes, some teachable lessons for a CPC inner circle), Canada’s unique-to-the-G20 youth movement isn’t going anywhere.

Some in conservative circles have recently argued that recent efforts from publications such as Without Diminishment, where I am a co-founder and managing editor, amount to little more than young people being “bored with liberal democratic capitalism.” Perhaps we’re talking past each other, but this isn’t the kids acting out because they’re not getting attention from mom and dad. If you’re a twenty or thirtysomething hoping to one day own a home in a country with a thirty-year low on housing starts, or you’re hoping to start a family at price-to-income ratios of 10-to-1, you haven’t experienced a whole lot of wins of late.

These aren’t excuses, but these concerns are far from trivial.

My favourite thread of the year, from someone who has fairly quickly become our most important journalist and columnist:

On more of that “new right” front, and apparently just being “bored” with witnessing lives made needlessly meaningless and replaceable, the Without Diminishment team and yours truly gathered for a special Christmas roundtable discussion on the early days of the publication, and what’s coming next.

Watch: 'It's about finding a new equilibrium between all the institutions that shape us'

There’s much to come there, and as a big-tent professional with increasingly busy days, I’m also happy to announce the Juno News show will return in the New Year, and I have four Christmas episodes airing before we get back to a full recording schedule on January 5th. You’re welcome to take advantage of my promo code for 20% off a subscription.

All these projects — our very acts of Canadian renewal — are not dimmed by federal fortunes. We cannot control the weather, but we can work with its winds. It’s no “cope” or act of delusion to suggest that we shouldn’t lose faith in our attempts to make a difference. Change is underway, but the mistake would be to take it at its word.

Look to the last ten years for where abdication on the key issues gets us. Look where taking this dominion for granted got us. Look how “go along to get along” ended up.

We’re not doing that again—younger conservatives, in particular. Build a movement strong enough, and you can withstand any Laurentian Nor’easter. Restore enough monuments of meaning, give back jobs, homes, and hope, and there’s your shelter from the storm.

That work continues in 2026, and I look forward to seeing you then.

Alexander Brown is the writer and editor of Acceptable Views, a political best-seller on Substack for over three years. He is a director with the National Citizens Coalition, a host on Juno News, and a co-founder and managing editor of Without Diminishment.