The Veneration Of St. Catherine The Martyred By Her Friends In The Press

"The COVID regime has given governments the strongest taste of full control they have had since war time. Odd, how frequently a taste becomes a diet.” Rex Murphy

Bored voters (“Harper’s too cold”) who take flyers on media-darling progressives almost always wind up regretting their caprice. It’s how you end up with the metric system or federal indigenous policy or Woke climate activism disguised as fact. Or lockdowns for a year. 

Once you give the precious elites the code to the security gate they have no boundaries. When challenged, their greatest conceit is that they are beyond criticism while the plebs need to be schooled in “facts” (indulged by pre-purchased media drones like “fact checker” Daniel Dale).

Example: the departure of Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna. The photogenic, blond, earnest bike-riding mother figure of SJW dreams caught every break from the Media Party, even as she told Canadians eating less meat will save the planet.

Here’s how a CBC fan-boy fashioned his/ they story about one of the Corp’s vedettes scuttling off to Lobby Town. “After enduring a barrage of online hate and physical attacks on her constituency office during her six years as an MP, Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna announced Monday she will not run again in the next election.” (Glad he’s kept an open mind.)

“McKenna — who led the contentious fight to levy a national price on carbon emissions as environment minister — has long been the target of sexist attacks over her vocal defence of climate action in the face of entrenched opposition.” Contentious fight. Entrenched opposition. Glad he’s not pushing a narrative.

“But she said the hardship she has endured in politics was not the motivation for her departure.” The hardship she has endured in first class. Poor Catherine, queen of first-world angst. The public figure who deserves a hall pass from criticism. 

Perhaps while she indulged her Bill Gates fetish McKenna missed how her climate fantasies have wrecked the lives of so many in the Canadian energy business. How creating the $1.50-plus litre of gas— to no appreciable climate benefit— might have put the squeeze on working Canadians who don’t fly private jet to Europe.

Or how her cavalier use of the word “deniers” to describe her foes affects real survivors of the Holocaust. No, in the CBC version, McKenna’s pique at being defied on climate is far greater than the hardship endured by Jody Wilson Raybould, her former colleague in the cabinet.

The alleged Liberal “feminist” stood mute while her male boss publicly humiliated and fired Wilson Raybould and Jane Philpott from the cabinet. She protected her own jet-setting climate sinecure by biting her tongue on a fellow woman. There were no CBC “barrage of online hate” or  “target of sexist attacks” lick jobs for Raybould. Just female cabinet ministers calling her a grifter for defying Skippy the Wonder PM. 

Now McKenna expects pity for her treatment? Much of the pushback against her is nasty and brutish. It’s not fun to take broadsides from the public when Team Ottawa Media panders to your vanity. But you don’t get to call foul when you’ve shown no compassion for fellow women or understanding of the impact your plans have cost.  McKenna exposed her safe-space vanity when she picked and chose which progressive causes to embrace and which to vilify. As they say, don’t write a cheque with your mouth that you can’t back up with your deeds.

Let’s play McKenna’s reported tender feelings alongside the defenestration of Wendy Mesley, who also received her fair share of abuse over the years. As we pointed out last week Mesley was ritually sacrificed to gotcha’ SJWs in her own newsroom. Where was Mesley’s sympathetic “her vocal defence of climate action in the face of entrenched opposition” piece at CBC.ca?

Mesley was buried in CBC’s basement for a year and then allowed to “retire”, her reputation a shambles, over one word. (Although, in classic CBC fashion, she still can’t bring herself to denounce the the cancel culture that eliminated her.) McKenna wrecks one the pillars of the Canadian economy and abandons fellow women, but CBC makes her out as Joan of Arc. No wonder Baroness von Sketch is the most credible thing on CBC these days.

The fact that Russell Brand, Joe Rogan & Ricky Gervais— three unaffiliated voices— have the most public credibility at the moment is stunning. Equally as stunning? The people formerly listed as credible— media/ experts/ Hollywood nits— have no idea this has happened.

Least of all Climate Catherine, as she cycles off to make a pile soaking her fellow Canadians as a lobbyist. Just another Liberal of convenience. The kind Canada churns out like canola these days.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx