Peter MacKinnon: Liberalism is dying a slow death — let's fight back in 2026

En route to power and absolutism in Germany, Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels spoke about the decline of the Weimar Republic: “The big joke on democracy is that it gave its mortal enemies the tools to its own destruction.” We should reflect on this observation today.

The Weimar Republic was weak, unstable, and vulnerable to the ideologues and extremists in post-First World War Germany. Canada, in comparison, has enjoyed a democratic lineage, mature government institutions and a population on the whole committed to liberalism.

But illiberalism is growing in Canada and beyond. We have seen extremism on our streets and on our university campuses, including loud voices that seek to silence contrary views. Antisemitism has reared its ugly head across the country, and our democratic institutions — long afflicted by weaknesses documented by Canadian public administration scholar and author Donald Savoie — are losing the confidence of growing numbers of Canadians.

American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum has called for a “ferocious fight” for liberalism; not for her the insipid voices of some in leadership positions today, but an organized, focused and determined struggle to confront and push back on illiberal influences.

This ferocious fight begins with a restatement of liberalism’s essential features: democratic institutions and politics, established freedoms, equality of opportunity, and market economies. Author and veteran journalist Jonathan Manthorpe has claimed that “Canada has a serious democratic deficit” as “Parliament and the legislatures have become largely devoid of relevance as venues for the debate and resolution of issues facing the country.”

Our established freedoms, particularly freedom of expression, have become more tenuous; equality of opportunity has given way to widespread discrimination in the name of EDI; and attacks on our market economy continue, presumably in favour of state ownership or control  — an old idea that has proven oppressive and unworkable.

The ferocious fight should see reform of our Parliament and legislatures, a determination to better protect our rights and freedoms, a crackdown on antisemitism, and a more productive and competitive market economy: indeed a worthy struggle for a new year.

National Post

Peter MacKinnon is a senior fellow of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Aristotle Foundation. This column is based on his book, “Confronting Illiberalism.”