A Liberal government uninterested in fighting culture wars? This could be it
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney might feel pressure to take sides as a new front in the culture wars opens up in Alberta — but don’t count on him doing it, those familiar with the Liberal leader’s thinking say.
Alberta just launched new guidelines for school library books , which critics allege will disproportionately censor materials discussing LGBTQ and gender-fluidity themes.
Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, frequently castigated conservative premiers for provincial policies he deemed intolerant, rebuking New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec over cultural policies. But Carney is expected to steer clear of those issues, underscoring a key dispositional difference between himself and Trudeau.
“He’s likely to take a different approach than (Trudeau), who had no issue calling out premiers over provincial matters,” says Sharan Kaur, a former senior Liberal government chief of staff who’s known Carney for a decade.
Kaur, now a principal at consulting firm Navigator, says she expects Carney to stay focused on the big picture, as he guides Canada through a perilous moment in both internal crises and cross-border relations.
“With U.S. trade tensions and separatist sentiment brewing in Alberta, he does not need another domestic fire, especially not over school libraries,” she said.
Alberta issued provincial guidelines Thursday directing K-12 schools to pull all books with graphic depictions of sexual acts from school libraries. The order also guided schools to restrict access to “non-explicit” sexually suggestive materials to students in Grade 10 and up.
Provincial officials said the action came after four sexually explicit graphic novels were found in Edmonton and Calgary public school libraries in the spring and the province surveyed parents in the province about whether the government should put controls on lending materials.
Three of the four books that were highlighted by the province as not acceptable are coming-of-age stories with LGBT protagonists. The fourth depicts male-on-male childhood sexual abuse.
The province said it would continue to allow books that serve as resources for sexual education.
Religious and scriptural books will also be exempt.
Kathleen Wynne, a former Liberal premier of Ontario, said the order would send Alberta down “(T)he slipperiest of slopes.” She also shared an article calling the order a “blatant act of cultural vandalism.”
Alberta Senator Kristopher Wells said he was worried about the order limiting access to sex-ed materials, but added he was relieved that there was nothing in its plain text preventing students from learning about LGBTQ identities.
Wells, a 2024 Trudeau appointee, accused the Alberta government last month of playing to an “old homophobic trope” by singling out LGBTQ-themed books as pornographic.
So far, Carney and his cabinet have not commented on the policy.
His predecessor, Trudeau, blasted New Brunswick in 2023 over its policy requiring schools to disclose student pronoun changes to parents, calling the policy “far-right.” The policy enjoyed the support of the vast majority of New Brunswickers and their fellow Canadians at the time.
Then minister of women, gender equality and youth Marci Ien was an equally vocal critic of similar parental disclosure policies rolled out in Saskatchewan and Alberta, saying at one point that these policies put transgender and nonbinary children in a “ life-or-death situation .”
Trudeau also accused Alberta’s plan to restrict medical transitioning for children of being “anti-LGBT,” opposed Ontario’s changes to its sex-ed school curriculum, and criticized Quebec for rules barring religious symbols being worn by public servants.
Chrystia Freeland, a senior minister under Trudaeau would later argue that Trudeau’s loud championing of LGBTQ rights and other culture war issues were part of the reason he fell out of favour with Canadians.
“Liberals … lose when people think that we are focused on virtue-signalling and identity politics,” Freeland said in an interview earlier this year.
Carney looks to be taking this lesson to heart, treading lightly on cultural issues. The women and gender equality portfolio was conspicuously absent from Carney’s maiden cabinet, although he assigned former minister of small business Rechie Valdez to the role shortly after April’s election.
Carney said in a post-debate media scrum that he believed there were two biological sexes, but also believed that transgender individuals should be accommodated where possible.
“This is Canada (and) we value all Canadians for who they are,” said Carney.
Tyler Meredith, a longtime Liberal insider and former senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Finance, said that attacking the Alberta school libraries order would be a bad use of Carney’s time and political capital.
Meredith said that the Alberta policy would provide for its own undoing.
“Bullies are bullies. Bullies make stupid mistakes,” said Meredith.
“Let the bullies show themselves in public.”
The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond to a National Post request for comment on the Alberta policy.
National Post
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