Step aside, Democratic Socialists of America. There is a new far-left outfit on the continent. The New Democratic Party (NDP), Canada’s socialists, held its leadership convention in the sizzling city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. While it was meant to be the culmination of a six-month leadership campaign that nobody paid attention to, the event quickly shifted into multi-day victimhood Olympics – and social media cannot help but watch a modern-day Hindenburg disaster in the Great White North.
Canada’s Socialists Fighting for Victim Status
The New Democrats selected Avi Lewis – a straight white male – as their new party leader. The NDP had little momentum heading into the festivities, and after outlining its priorities – free phones, free internet, and free groceries – it is safe to say that the impetus will remain nonexistent. In other words, the NDP will continue to be the little engine that couldn’t in the House of Commons.
One only needs to watch what unfolded with equity cards to see how Canada’s socialists could never micromanage an economy or even legislate themselves out of a sustainably sourced and 100% recycled post-consumer paper bag.
During this past weekend’s events, the NDP recognized five so-called equity-seeking members: the 2SLGBTQ+, indigenous, persons living with disabilities, racialized, and women and non-cis men. Upon registration, delegates from these groups were given color-coded cards, which signified priority during debates and speaking sessions to facilitate equitable representation.
These cards were meant to help organizers determine who was the biggest victim and, as a result, who would obtain priority. However, due to the inane and complicated world of intersectionality, what ensued after was something that should be on Saturday Night Live or, if you reside in Canada, a sketch on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
One delegate, a black woman, held a purple card and reminded everyone she does not possess any “value outside of this space.” Poor lady. Another delegate, a woman wearing a keffiyeh, carried a green card and was upset that she had not been called upon before someone else. A supposed “he/they” griped that a “white man” was prioritized over an equity card-carrying individual.
The top complainer was perhaps somebody who would win gold in the victimhood Olympics: an Asian man in a dress – or a “racialized, transgender delegate” – who wanted to speak ahead of a “cisgender woman” because of his “lived experience.” Here is what he (she?) said:
“It’s hard as a racialized and transgender delegate to sometimes use this card and speak up, speak to somebody in front of me and mine and ask, ‘Hey, this pertains to multiple intersecting parts of my lived experience, I’d like to speak.’
“I was rejected when I talked, and it’s frustrating when these are my rights being directly under attack right now in Alberta, and a cisgender woman had spoken over me. And I understand her rights are important too. This pertains to her, too, but I don’t know. I hope that in the future, the Federal MDP will also have a broader interpretation of the equity cards for speakers.”
If Canadians are not being taxed to death by Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberal Party, they are being exposed to the theater of the woke, shedding brain cells in the process.
Equity Cards and Soy Milk
The NDP’s equity cards were a perfect illustration of how Canada’s socialists would fail to oversee an economy. The spontaneous order of society contains a wide range of people: straight black men, gay white females, handicapped transgendered Kwakwakaʼwakw from Vancouver Island, and so on. New Democrats would already struggle by trying to categorize 40 million Canadians.
And this is why they could never centrally plan the marketplace and provide something as simple as their favorite beverage: soy milk. Today, consumers can purchase unsweetened soy milk, strawberry soy milk, protein-fortified soy milk, organic soy milk, soy milk from sprouted soybeans, shelf-stable UHT soy milk, and the list goes on. Now these same products contain different inputs, from ingredients to packaging. Then there is the shipping, transportation, and logistics.
For these products to reach the shelves of local supermarkets, soy milk connoisseurs require the price mechanism of free markets. Prices are the invisible hand of the marketplace, communicating information in real time and spotlighting preferences and scarcity. Put simply, the central planners suffer from an economic calculation problem. They would fail to allocate resources efficiently, leading to shortages and a wide range of other problems.
Circling back to the weekend in Winnipeg, it would be impossible to manufacture a victimhood hierarchy. Is a deaf Ugandan man less of a victim than a transgender Australian woman? Who determines whose “lived experience” has been more painful? How are the criteria measured? If equity is achieved for one class, who then rises to the top of the victimhood pyramid and obtains priority for the next crusade?
The harsh truth is that bureaucrats of these political entities are indifferent to the plight of their constituents or party members. Instead, crusades of the working class, indebted young graduates, and the confused are co-opted by progressives as merely rungs on a ladder to power.
Jungian Analysis and Sowell Wisdom
In his 1957 book, The Undiscovered Self, famous psychologist Carl Jung discussed the neurotics who cannot – or refuse to – adjust to society. “Everywhere in the West there are subversive minorities who, sheltered by our humanitarianism and our sense of justice, hold the incendiary torches ready,” Jung wrote.
Because they fail to adapt to the world around them, they must engage in Orwellian pursuits by redesigning it. Eminent economist Thomas Sowell wrote in Vision of the Anointed, “The anointed must not only design a different social world from that which exists, they must people that world with different creatures, custom-made for the purpose.”
Whether Canada’s socialists or America’s theater kids, there is a stratum of society that, while comical in nature, will arise to positions of power, be it elected office or bureaucracy. They can be New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), ready to wield their torches and ignite the flames of destruction and destitution. Critics contend that socialism works on paper but fails in reality. However, even a modicum of logic would lead to a conclusion that the ideology, whether economically or socially, is two equity cards short of an NDP convention.
