Cancel culture is alive and well in “progressive” Canada. Don’t like something, try to cancel the company, the individual, the contract, anything you can do to force diversity through uniformity!

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That’s what this is really all about, isn’t it? The people who proclaim their love of diversity can’t stand that someone thinks differently than them and so they try to use their weight to enforce a uniform worldview.

The latest example is the brouhaha over Pierre Poilievre giving a quick address over the PA system on a WestJet flight from Quebec City to Calgary at the end of the Conservative convention. The flight was specifically added by WestJet to accommodate the large number of people travelling from Western Canada to Quebec City for the Conservative convention.

This was pretty darn near a charter flight by the Conservative Party.

Poilievre got up, with permission of the company and the flight crew, and gave a 45-second address to the passengers, most of whom, if not all, were supporters. This drove liberals online crazy with claims that this compromised security, that it was inconsiderate for this to happen the day before the 9/11 anniversary, that it showed the airline was partisan.

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Has-been singer Jann Arden threatened a boycott of WestJet, which I would think would be a bonus, a marketing opportunity even, rather than a negative. Think about it, WestJet ads with the slogan, “On time flights and no Jann Arden, fly WestJet.”

The company obviously felt the pressure and CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech felt he had to make a statement.

“This flight was specifically added to assist with demand for the CPC convention, and was largely filled with their delegates. The leader of the party was given the opportunity to greet delegates onboard (which is not unusual), but this was not a political endorsement nor should it be interpreted as such. We are non-partisan by nature and will revisit our policy on this,” he said in a post to X.com.

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It’s unlikely that will satisfy those who are even angry Poilievre was allowed on a plane to begin with.

These people have no problem with Justin Trudeau doing the same thing on a TTC subway train just a few weeks ago, or Omar Alghabra taking over the PS on a Via train for an announcement. It’s Poilievre and the fact that he’s a Conservative that they can’t stand; it has nothing to do with safety or anything else.

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It’s not first time Poilievre has been targeted because of doing business with or being affiliated with a company. During the Conservative leadership race, Steam Whistle Brewing was hit with threats of boycotts after Poilievre rented out one of their rooms to hold an event.

The rooms are open to anyone to rent, and they’ve been rented out to political parties of all stripes for years. But Poilievre being there brought about threats of boycotts.

A few days later in response, Poilievre gave a shoutout to a Niagara craft brewer which was then inundated with people threatening to stop buying their products unless they distanced themselves from Poilievre.

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It’s not just elected officials or Conservatives getting this treatment.

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A group of activists, backed by Hollywood types like Mark Ruffalo, are trying to force the Toronto International Film Festival to drop their relationship with Royal Bank. Their gripe is that RBC does business in and with the oil sands, something the jet-setters like Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Joaquin Phoenix would like to stop.

TIFF has just lost Bell as a major sponsor, RBC is perhaps their next biggest financial backer with a 16-year relationship, but chances are the film festival caves to the mob and won’t do business with RBC again. This is how so-called “progressives” operate, lean in, make threats, demand that everyone behaves the way they do, or bad things will happen.

The mob is more honest than this bunch.

But don’t claim cancel culture is real or a problem because they might try to cancel you, or have your bank drop you, or have you fired.

That’s the way they work, as they spread their gospel of diversity while imposing uniformity.