Some weeks you write the news, other weeks you make it

The newsletter gets results.

"The fences are electrified, right?"

"That's right, but they never attacked the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses, systematically. They remember."

Jurassic Park (Crichton, Spielberg, 1993)

It’s three days after Second Christmas (Trudeau’s ‘balk in the snow’), in the midst of a life-affirming sunrise over the North Shore mountains in British Columbia’s lower main, when the ‘make mischief’ portion of this writer’s brain decides to take the wheel for a day.

Many were vaguely aware of the Liberal government’s problematic nomination process, which had its doors flung wide open and left the porch light on for foreign interference for years under the Trudeau administration.

Like their NDP counterparts, who sell “stranger danger” memberships to children as young as 12, the Liberal Party had settled on sliding open the minivan door and offering a welcoming hand to anyone with a pulse over 14, for free, they didn’t even have to have their permanent residency.

So, with the support of the organization where I hang my hat during the day, the National Citizens Coalition — and its email list 80,000 long — and in concert with a kind and kindred knucklehead by the name of David Portier, we set out to test those proverbial fences, for the good of our fellow yobs — and sure, election integrity.

Registration was — immediately — an even bigger joke than imagined.

David Portier, a self-identified “prospective candidate for the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada,” said he was able to register to vote while using a European internet connection and a fake name and registered his address as 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada. ('X users expose how easy it is to register as Liberals ahead of leadership race’ — True North)

Later in the piece:

“Alex Brown, an author (Editor’s note: I am not an author, unless you want me to be), said he used the address of the Chinese consulate in Ottawa to vote, telling others to do the same in the hope of fixing the system before voting begins.

‘And just like that, Xi Jinping was signed up to vote in the Liberal leadership race,’ he said. ‘This is too easy, even by the low standards of repeated traitors to Canada.’”

In the shortest of orders, and before my second cup of coffee, this had become A Thing.

There were calls and emails from independent and legacy media; the stunt — and I’m under no pretenses of self-seriousness, this was absolutely a stunt — trended on Twitter/X; furious Liberals Comms Directors lashed out in the press, accusing us of fraud.

"The Liberal Party of Canada is aware of these ridiculous, fraudulent registration attempts," Parker Lund wrote, before refusing to engage with my reply, and the raison d’etre of it all.

With no grand designs larger than “let’s see how broken this is,” the Liberal election registration program was broken in record time. By the time of this follow-up with Trudeau’s spox, the effort was trending on Twitter.

Normal politicians, media personalities, the not-so-ordinary Canadian — everyone wanted in. They signed up the H-man, the Ayatollah, dogs, their cattle, Bugs Bunny, Seymour Dicks, I.P. Freely, and other such esteemed gentlemen.

I also took some (understandable) calls from people in my life saying “Hey, idiot, don’t get sued.” Good advice, I get it. And yet:

The Liberal Party of Canada was set to hand the very selection of Canada’s interim Prime Minister — still set to be wallpapered by Pierre Poilievre — to millions of temporary foreign visitors who could be using addresses such as Ottawa’s Chinese consulate. This is the same party that had previously bussed-in foreign students to decide ridings under alleged diaspora-community threat.

Terrific work from men like Sam Cooper exists for a reason.

My thoughts on this drift back to words crafted by a gifted Canadian fiction writer by the name of Emily Mandel.

“Survival is insufficient . . . I don’t want to live the wrong life and then die.” (Station Eleven)

This is of course hyperbole weighed against a viral trend and “owning the Libs,” but why do we do anything?

Why do we pack up and move across countries, choose to start families even when the times are tight and the wolf is at the door, why have you ever deviated off course from the confines of the known, and away from that comfort zone where nothing can grow?

If we can’t make a little good mischief against bad governments and those who wish you “the wrong life” — the wrong country — what’s the point of this whole rabble, the columns, Substacks, podcasts, social media shitposts, or the friends we’ve made along the way?

Was the stunt particularly clever? No. Did it get results? Therein lies the rub: It sure did.

The news broke late last night that the Liberals had ratified nomination proceedings so that to vote for Liberal leader and the interim Prime Minister of Canada, one must now be a permanent resident or a citizen.

Fences were tested.

We broke it so they had to fix it.

Survival is insufficient.

If I can help pull something like this off — your friendly neighbourhood knucklehead of a Substack writer and non-profit director — just imagine what you can accomplish, Dear Reader, with a real job, all the agency in the world, and wind in your sails?

Let’s get to work.

Alexander Brown is a writer, comms director, and part-time politico living in Vancouver. Of late, his writing has appeared in the Western Standard, New West Times, and Toronto Sun. Acceptable Views is a Substack best-seller, if you enjoy these columns, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

---

We close with a kind feature profile from Linda Slobodian of the Western Standard, who spent 30 minutes on the phone with yours truly yesterday, and who wanted to help tell this story.

You’ve heard from me enough this week — hey, it was “balk in the snow” week, if anything I was limiting myself to just 3-4 appearances in your inbox — but go give it a read over at the Western Standard or here below. I’ll try to push the podcast ‘til Monday so I don’t start getting flagged as spam.

SLOBODIAN: If a person says they're a Liberal (or Bugs Bunny) they're a Liberal

Linda Slobodian, Published on: 10 Jan 2025

Read in the Western Standard

Members of the Bugs Bunny Show team are among new membership registrations accepted recently by the Liberal Party of Canada... The party laughs it off, but it's no laughing matter when an unqualified membership gets to pick a party leader who will be prime minister, even if only for a few months.

The entire Bugs Bunny Show team, a Greasy Walrus, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and a cat named Salem are among new membership registrations accepted recently by the Liberal Party of Canada.

Napoleon Bonaparte, (reincarnated as a Canadian voter), Elon Musk, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping also registered.

“Wait for CBC to tell the story of the groundswell of Liberal support across the country,” wrote @qochoc21906 on X.

Funny. Not unrealistic. But the reality of the Liberal Party’s registration rules has serious, maddening repercussions.

Party members are eligible to vote March 9, to choose a leader to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he was strong-armed into resigning.

But, who are these party members allowed to influence who’ll serve as interim PM?

“It is the Wild West that ironically opens us up to eastern influences,” said Alexander Brown, Director of the National Citizens Coalition, who was welcomed by the Liberal party after registering as Xi Jinping Thursday.

“Foreign students under diaspora threat and intelligence assets could very well decide Canada’s next prime minister... This is terrifying, and frankly, treasonous,” said Brown describing it as a “massive foreign interference issue.”

Add another national security black mark to the disgraced party for leaving the door wide open to foreign interference influencing who’ll temporarily serve as Canada’s prime minister until the federal election is held.

They aim to pick a new leader by March 9 to oversee a new parliamentary session ending the prorogation request Governor General Mary Simon granted Trudeau.

Liberal rules have allowed anyone aged 14 and older to join, including those “ordinarily” residing in Canada whether or not they hold Canadian status.

Actually, when the Liberals said anyone, they seem to have meant everyone.

“It’s completely open to foreign students, foreign intelligence assets, any diaspora influence groups. I think of the millions of the temporary residents we had after the last few years, many of whom came here on absolutely no background checks.”

“Are you a radical cleric? Are you a Khalistan separatist? Are you a diaspora student who's been tasked with spying on Western universities for the Chinese Communist Party?”

The Liberals don’t check.

After being publicly shamed and ridiculed by Bugs Bunny impersonators, the party announced Thursday it’ll amend nomination rules to no longer allow temporary foreign visitors to vote for the interim leader.

Liberal spokesman Parker Lund said the party will remove fake registrations from its rolls. In typical skanky Liberal fashion, he mocked those who exposed the rules.

“The Liberal Party of Canada is aware of these ridiculous, fraudulent registration attempts,” he wrote on X.

“The national party secretary has the ability to remove registrants from our lists and will be removing these fraudulent profiles well in advance of any leadership vote.”

Suddenly, it’s important. Are the Liberals, if we can believe them, closing the barn door too late? How can they scrub lists if voters on the rolls didn’t have to provide proof of who they are?

Brown registered using a Jinping email address, PresidentXi@gmail.com, gave the address of the Chinese Consulate in Ottawa, and a “version” of the dictator’s birthdate.

“It didn't stop me. It didn't say you can't use this name. It didn't say confirm the email. I don't have the rights to PresidentXi@gmail.com. It didn’t send me a text to that mobile number which is fake.”

“It didn't ask me for identification, didn't ask for a donation. Boom! Thank you for registering.”

He said the process is “too easy, even by the standards of repeated traitors to Canada.”

Jinping’s easy to spot and banish — if they so wish. Other fraudulent registrars? Maybe not so much.

“It’s the reality that it can be literally anybody. There might be a filter for language, but there's not a filter for who these people are, where their addresses are inside of Canada. There’s no check on the phone number. There's no check on the email,” said Brown.

So, what are the larger implications?

Brown says Conservative populist movements around the world are in the midst of “course corrections back towards unity, law and order, an end to overly woke initiatives” that nobody “actually wanted.”

“This has been run by a loud and well-organized minority, often backed up by government-funded NGOs to help you get the policy that you want to implement in the first place.”

“But talk to anyone these days. Whether it's the person next to you at the grocery store, or the parents in the park, or the guy at the gym, or the construction workers on the corner. They'll tell you that they've had enough.”

However, the Liberal threat still hovers like a heavy foul odour.

“God forbid they select someone who is a compromised foreign asset or a delusional net zero business advocate like a Mark Carney. You’d have more danger to fight in order to secure Canadian recovery. “

“People should be hopeful, but it's still precarious … We have to get across the finish line.”