This week Liberals and Conservatives put their elbows down to applaud the American far-right.

The last federal election was ostensibly about stopping Trump from taking over Canada, and though the Mark Carney Liberals won a plurality of votes based on opposing Trump, even the Pierre Poilievre Conservatives changed tone during the contest to portray a more defiant image relative to the USA.

But it was all a smokescreen, because neither side of the soft Liberal-Tory coalition actually opposes Trump or Trumpism. Since the election, the elbows up rhetoric has been largely shelved, with them backing Trump’s illegal bombing of Iran, disastrous golden dome, cancelling retaliatory tariffs while Trump maintains his, and even his destruction of the Digital Services Tax.

You heard that right, the Canadian government now must get our domestic tax policy approved by the American President.  

It only gets worse, as Carney has been plotting closed-door meetings with the architects of the extremist Project 2025, and refuses to tell us the contents of his secret meetings with an increasingly fascistic Trump. Why won’t he tell us? One might possibly assume it’s because he doesn’t want us to know the depth of his MAGA alliance with Donald. 

It’s in this context that Liberal and Conservative MPs rose to applaud Charlie Kirk after his assassination in Utah. I should say clearly that most everyone regards the attack as an awful act, sharing their sympathies above all for Kirk’s young children. But it made no sense for Canada’s House of Commons to applaud Kirk’s legacy as a ‘free speech champion’ unless it was to also endorse Kirk’s wider ideological framework, which was inundated with hate, prejudice, and disdain for democracy. 

This was a man who proudly stated he would force his pre-teen daughter to give birth if she was a victim of rape. This was a man who said dead children shot at schools were a worthy sacrifice upon the altar of the 2nd Amendment. This was a man who sent busses on the day of the January 6th coup attempt, and then pled the 5th when asked about his role in the coup.

Also pertinent is how he showed little respect for Canada.

“Canada is a really screwed up country and it is a self-hating country, as you well know, that prides itself on being polite. This is a great lesson for those of us from the West that your favourable characteristics of being polite, nice and welcoming can also be your downfall. You know that in Canada, right?”

We can feel sad for a young man losing his life. We can feel for a family torn asunder and children without a father. But Kirk was a hatemonger, and Parliament shouldn’t applaud, especially in the context of a defense of ideals. Indeed, Kirk’s ideological movement has used his killing as a justification to engage in a witch-hunt, trying to silence journalists like Rachel Gilmore, getting regular people fired from their jobs, and even having Jimmy Kimmel’s show pulled off the air.

And while Don Davies confirmed to me that no NDP MP stood in applause to Kirk, most of the ‘Carney-Poilievre coalition’ did. Now we must question if they believe what Kirk believed. Do Carney and Poilievre believe little girls must be forced to give birth? Do they believe guns have more rights than people? Do they believe that Black Canadians are “prowling” the streets to attack whites, or that Islam in Canada is ‘slitting the throats’ of our country?

As the Liberal and Conservative parties become increasingly pro-MAGA, I worry about the answer.

Christo Aivalis is a political commentator and historian, holding a PhD in Canadian History from Queen’s University. His writing has appeared in Jacobin, The Breach, Ricochet, Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, and the Washington Post.  You can read his work on Substack