In the News: Maxime Bernier Denounces the Cult of Diversity

Tory MP Bernier criticized for saying ‘more diversity’ will ‘destroy’ what makes Canada great, Rachel Aiello, CTV News, 2018-08-13

Outspoken Conservative MP and failed leadership contender Maxime Bernier is facing criticism from within his caucus, and beyond, over a series of tweets accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of fostering a “cult of diversity” that he believes will destroy the country.

In a six-tweet thread posted Sunday evening, the Quebec MP says that more diversity will “divide us into little tribes” and bring “distrust, social conflict, and potentially violence.”

[…]

He argues that “Trudeau’s extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity” will divide Canadians into “political clienteles” that can be bought with taxpayer money and special privileges.

In subsequent tweets, Bernier sought to emphasize that his issue is with “more diversity” and “ever more diversity,” which he says Trudeau is proposing with “radical multiculturalism.”

“Canada has always been a diverse country and this is part of who we are. I love this Canada. But there is a difference between recognizing diversity and pushing for ever more of it. Something infinitely diverse has no core identity and ceases to exist,” he said.

Of course Bernier is right in his criticism of the vapid slogans which regularly spew from the mouth of Justin Trudeau. The Trudeau cult of “diversity” constitutes clientelism—i.e. pandering to various communities, especially religious ones, in order to garner votes—mixed with a substantial dose of airheaded identitarianism which is currently very much in fashion. But the Conservative Party also practises clientelism; hence the embarrassment which Bernier’s comments have caused his party. Furthermore, the radical multiculturalism practised by the Trudeau Liberals is incompatible with secularism, but the Conservatives do not support secularism either, as they are too closely tied to evangelical Christians in the Canadian west.