Alexander Brown is the Director of the National Citizens Coalition, Canada’s longest-serving conservative non-profit advocacy groupAs Canadians, we’ve grown accustomed to the Liberal Party’s penchant for catchy slogans and empty, divisive rhetoric. The latest continued buzzword from the Liberals and certain Canadian premiers is the “Team Canada” approach — a phrase meant to evoke unity, collaboration, and a shared national purpose. It’s a lofty ideal, one that suggests we’re all in this together and skating in the same direction to handle the challenges ahead. But as the Liberals wax poetic about teamwork, there’s a glaring contradiction emerging: behind the scenes, they’re not so quietly gearing up for an election call — perhaps later today even, if the buzz is right — and ready to ditch the jerseys and start swinging elbows in a partisan brawl.It’s their COVID-19 election all over again.The Liberals want Canadians to believe they’re not responsible for weakening Canada at this most crucial time, and that they’re somehow above the fray and focused solely on the common good, yet their actions tell a different story. .While Carney and his ministers (and Prime Minister Trudeau before him) publicly preached solidarity, they’re busy sharpening their attack ads, plotting wedge issues, lying about their records, directing third-party groups to increase spending, and eyeing the polling data like hawks.It’s a classic bait-and-switch: sell the public on a noble vision of unity, unite against a common enemy, then throw open the doors to a fully assembled election war room the moment it suits them. This isn’t “Team Canada” — it’s Team Liberal, and the only playbook they are following is one written for their own survival.Let’s not kid ourselves — governments preparing for elections is nothing new. But the hypocrisy here is particularly galling. The Liberals have spent months touting their “Team Canada” mantra, especially in the context of trade talks and international relations, as if they’re rallying the nation for some grand collective effort, when in reality, we’re seeing a similar brand of profiteering to that of the appalling big government encroachments witnessed during COVID-19. Canadians deserve better than a government that uses unity as a marketing gimmick while stoking the fires of division for political gain and power consolidation..The disconnect becomes even clearer when you look at the timing. With economic uncertainty growing worse by the day, inflation still biting, housing costs soaring, our people growing less happy than ever before, and our energy still land-locked and hamstrung by the Liberals and NDP, Canadians are desperate for strong leadership that puts the country first.Instead, while the Liberals say one thing and plan for the other, Canadians will instead be faced with an election where the Liberals will happily pit region against region, class against class, and voter against voter to cling to power. It’s a cynical move dressed up as patriotism, and it’s one that insults the intelligence of every Canadian who’s been paying attention.The Conservatives, to their continued credit, continue to resist deploying wedge politics, and are seeking to secure a broad mandate, with anticipated historic gains from young voters who have been abandoned over the past decade.At the National Citizens Coalition, we believe in holding politicians accountable, no matter their stripe. The Liberals can’t have it both ways — claiming the moral high ground of unity while profiting from tariff uncertainty and plotting a bare-knuckle fight to keep their jobs. If Mark Carney truly believed in a “Team Canada” approach, he would now focus on governing with purpose and transparency, and he’d own that this moment of crisis has been largely about securing his position before an election call.While many tend to go mad in crowds, Canadians aren’t wholly naive; we see through the spin, we see the artificiality of certain Carney gains, his shameful lies and the shirking from Canadian media, and we see what the threat of a renewed Liberal mandate, largely on behalf of Laurentian benefactors and pensioners in Ontario, would mean to Canada’s future generations, and our very Confederation.This moment of tariff crisis should have been dealt with months ago by Conservative adults in the room, backed by a fresh mandate. Sadly, this has instead been turned into an opportunity for the weak-minded, the oil and gas-averse, the flag-lowering and history-hating, to secure their political lifeline. To do what’s truly best for the country, Canadians must stand athwart a repeat of history, defeat the Liberals resoundingly at the polls, and return this country to its former glory.Alexander Brown is the Director of the National Citizens Coalition, Canada’s longest-serving conservative non-profit advocacy group.
