BartSimpson BartSimpson:
What a novel tactic: Castigate Ezra as an out-of-touch radical out on the fringe when it suits you and then dismiss him as just another run-of-the-mill media hack when it suits you.
Meaning that I can't wait to see the next article where this entire topic is contradicted.
Not quite, Bart. I was trying to show that Levant's attempt to depict himself as the brave little guy fighting against the monolithic liberal elite isn't all there is to the story. A lot of what he supports can also be attributed to various elites, and there are multiple different kinds of elites in this country, across all different parts of the political spectrum.
Just look at Pierre Trudeau. He made his reputation in the 1960s fighting against what he presented as popular opinion and conventional wisdom, whether it be Quebec separatism or the idea that Quebec ought to be recognized as distinct in Canada. To that extent, he presented himself as a rebel, or "paddling against the current", as he put it.
However, once his views became the establishment, he flipped out whenever anyone dared to rebel against
his arguably elite view of how things ought to be done. This is why he fought so hard against the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords in the 1980s and early '90s, too. He presented himself as rebelling against the elites of the day, but you could also say that he was an elite fighting back against anyone who dared to rebel against him.
That goes back to my point-there is no one monolithic "elite" in Canada. Instead, we have multiple elites, and even those who could be put into similar camps have their own disagreements with each other. That's why these things really should be judged on a case-by-case basis.
Like Trudeau the elder shows, sometimes rebels and elites aren't necessarily what they seem.