AUBUT: Canada's one-way political conversation has to be challenged

Alan Aubut is a retired geologist, based in NipigonThe Overton Window is a political theory that describes the narrow band of ideas considered acceptable in public discourse at any given time. Originally developed by Joseph P. Overton of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, it was designed as an analytical tool to explain why some policies gain traction while others are dismissed, regardless of their logical or moral grounding. It became a framework for understanding how ideas move from unthinkable to acceptable, and sometimes into law, by shifting what the public is willing to tolerate or support.Overton framed his model around a "window" to capture how public perception functions: the public can see a range of ideas, but only those within the frame are considered legitimate topics for serious political or media engagement. Ideas outside the window are either invisible or instantly discredited. This was a metaphor of perception, not necessarily of action. The window could shift left or right, widen or narrow, depending on cultural change, political momentum, or media influence. But what remained implicit in the metaphor was that the public did not move through the window; rather, the window moved to adjust what the public was shown and allowed to consider..In theory, this model explains incremental change. Ideas can be slowly normalized. What is unthinkable becomes radical, then acceptable, then sensible, then policy. Conversely, ideas can be moved out of bounds and stigmatized. The metaphor assumes a kind of passive observer — someone watching from behind the glass, granted a curated view of the political landscape.But the events of the past decade, and particularly in Canada leading up to and during the 2025 federal election, have exposed the limits of the Overton Window metaphor. It no longer adequately describes the active mechanisms of suppression and control being exercised by institutions such as the media, government, academia, and cultural gatekeepers. A more accurate metaphor, one that acknowledges the intentional exclusion of ideas, is the Overton Door.Unlike a window, which simply allows or restricts view, a door must be opened or closed by someone. It implies action. Control. Agency. And most importantly, permission. Where a window is passive and observational, a door is active and restrictive. The transition from the window model to the door model marks the shift from perception management to narrative enforcement. This is not simply about framing acceptable debate. It is about blocking it altogether. The best disinfectant is sunlight but when totally blocked, the pestilence continues to fester, unabated..Take, for example, the public discourse surrounding Islam in Western societies. While Christianity and Judaism are routinely subjected to criticism, satire, and institutional scepticism, any critical examination of Islam’s doctrinal or cultural conflicts with liberal Western values is reflexively dismissed as Islamophobic. The core contradictions — such as those between Islamic orthodoxy and feminist ideals, or LGBTQ+ rights — are not debated; they are avoided. The door is shut. The subject is not just discouraged but forbidden. And it is forbidden not by public sentiment alone, but by coordinated institutional behaviour. The media refuses to engage, politicians evade and academics retreat. In 2017, British author and political commentator Douglas Murray faced widespread backlash and de-platforming campaigns following the release of "The Strange Death of Europe," in which he questioned immigration policies and highlighted ideological clashes between Islamic doctrine and Western liberal norms. .In Canada, similar observations have rarely been allowed to surface within mainstream outlets. This is not a window adjusting public perception. This is a door being slammed to prevent public participation.Another example is the residential school narrative in Canada, particularly the explosive claims of unmarked graves. Despite the absence of independent forensic validation, the matter has been elevated to unquestionable national truth. Any demand for verification or scientific method is dismissed not as a call for rigour, but as denialism. British Columbia MLA Dallas Brodie came under immediate fire in 2025 for pointing out the absence of confirmed remains at the Kamloops site, even though her statement was factually correct. Similarly, lawyer James Heller faced libel attacks and professional smears simply for advocating the use of forensic standards when discussing potential grave sites. The Overton Door metaphor reveals the mechanism here: the topic has not merely moved out of the frame — it has been locked away, and those who try to access it face public shaming or institutional censure..Similarly, discussions around race and discrimination operate on a controlled-access model. Discrimination against white populations, or the idea that affirmative policies might disadvantage others, cannot be openly questioned. Such concerns are branded as racist before they are even engaged. In the United States, author Heather Mac Donald has faced boycotts and protests on university campuses for her work questioning race-based hiring and policing narratives. In Canada, even raising questions about differential treatment in academic admissions or job placement is enough to be blacklisted from mainstream platforms. Again, this is not the perception-management of a window; it is the ideological triage of a door, deciding which voices may speak and which must be silenced.In the 2025 Canadian federal election, the consequences of this door-centric media culture were fully exposed. Public debate was corralled into a tightly managed narrative: only Liberal or Conservative choices were considered viable, despite deep dissatisfaction across the political spectrum. Core issues like immigration, inflation, housing, and civil liberties were not examined in any meaningful way by legacy media. Alternative parties or independent voices were either ignored or portrayed as threats. This was not a matter of perception. It was enforcement.Polls were wielded not as instruments of insight, but as tools of reinforcement. Methodologically flawed, unrepresentative, and statistically weak surveys were paraded as evidence of consensus. They shaped expectations rather than recorded them. And media outlets treated these polls as gospel, offering no challenge, no critique. It was as if the door had been bolted shut on electoral diversity, and the public was told to remain still in the corridor..Even the political philosophy underpinning Western governance has been subjected to door-like control. The traditional spectrum of Hobbesian collectivism versus Lockean individualism — once central to understanding political thought — has been eclipsed by hollow left-right binaries. In reality, the most important distinction is between those who believe in centralized authority for the sake of security (Hobbes) and those who believe in limited government to protect liberty (Locke.) Today’s progressive ideology increasingly aligns with the Hobbesian model, cloaked in compassion but oriented toward state control. The media class — aligned with this vision — acts as gatekeeper to suppress Lockean arguments. Personal liberty, self-determination, even scepticism of power, are now traits marked as suspect. When Lockean views are expressed — calls for smaller government, individual accountability, or constitutional restraint — they are often met with labels like "far-right," "extremist," or even "Nazi," regardless of whether such terms bear any factual basis. These accusations serve one purpose: to shut the door on the conversation before it starts. Meanwhile, Hobbesian views advocating for more state power, surveillance, and social conformity face no such linguistic policing. The asymmetry is telling. One side is granted the legitimacy of concern; the other is smeared into silence.Mr. Trudeau’s government, and now Mark Carney’s leadership, represent this evolution. Both operate within the language of equity and social responsibility, but their real impact has been the expansion of state influence, the marginalization of dissent, and the narrowing of debate. The media has been their enabler, not their critic. It is not just that the window has shifted. The door has been shut, bolted, and guarded.This brings us to the key distinction: the window metaphor focuses on perception; the door metaphor reveals power. A window moves to adjust what the public can see. A door is controlled by someone who decides who gets to pass — a guardian at the gate there to keep the inquisitive mind out. When institutions curate the narrative so that entire subjects become untouchable, when access to debate is granted or denied based on ideological loyalty, we are no longer in the realm of social consensus, we are in the domain of information authoritarianism.The path back from this is unclear. But recognition is the first step. Those committed to liberty, truth, and genuine democratic dialogue must stop trying to widen the window and begin demanding the door be unlatched. We do not need permission to speak. We do not need institutional framing to think. And we should not accept curated access to ideas as the price of public engagement.Joseph Overton gave us a useful concept. But the political reality of our time has moved beyond his frame. The window is now seen for what it really was, and is: a door. And it's time to demand it be opened.Alan Aubut is a retired geologist, based in Nipigon.

AUBUT: Canada's one-way political conversation has to be challenged

Related Stories