Jonathan Kay: Why the Canadian left believes kooky theories about coded messages to Nazis

This has got to be the first election in the history of any democratic nation in which the incumbent self-describes as the leader of a genocide state. Yet he also tells us he’s done a bang-up job. You’d think the whole ongoing-genocide thing would be a significant campaign issue, right? At least up there with high ATM fees and electric-car tax credits. But it’s not, because everyone involved — Trudeau, in particular — knows that most voters inhabit a reality-based existence. And so they’re going to have little patience with Matrix-like conspiracy theories about Canada being a nordic Rwanda.

You can see how this complete reversal in tone generates cognitive dissonance for partisans. One moment, Canadians are history’s greatest monsters. (It’s been three months since Justin Trudeau ordered Canadian flags lowered, following the discovery of bodies of children who attended residential schools. When asked when he’ll put the flags back up, a spokesperson said Trudeau was waiting for some unspecified Indigenous community to make the decision for him.) Then the writ gets dropped. And suddenly, patriotism comes back into fashion, and we’re told that life in Canada — far from being a white supremacist dystopia — is so awesome that our PM deserves another term.