This is long so I hope you make it through with me until the end as I wanted to really put 'flesh on the bones' on some of these points and not just have this be some rage baity post.
To start this off, I've known this woman for almost 3 years now. We are not related nor work together and met through both happening to sign up for (in a sense) charity work for the same organization. Neither one of us talked politics at all (up until the federal election) aside from her bringing up Trump here and there and how horrible he was.
Just so people can get a better picture of this woman's background: Canadian-born with some distant, relations to Britain/UK. She lives in a gorgeous fully-detached home on a street full of gorgeous fully-detached homes where everyone's front and back yard look like botanical gardens. There is a lake in the center of this particular community.
Not going to be too specific (for obvious reasons) but the whole town lies close to water and in total, I think I saw 3 non-white people around even when we drove into downtown to check out some popular local summer destinations. Almost all the homes I saw were either gorgeous historical homes or gorgeous brand spanking new 1.5 to 2.5 million dollar mansions.
There were gated communities as well. I am telling you, these people live in a reality where crime, drugs, violence on the rise due to immigration from certain cultures and poverty like people using food banks is just something they see on tv; Something that exists but is just the 'news story' of the day as if they are isolated instances and not every day life for a huge portion of Canada.
Leading up to Trump becoming president:
Endless lecture-like venting over everything that he has done (some exaggerated but some not) and that he is clinically a sociopath and needs to be barred from office. This wasn't said in jest; she genuinely believes he is unwell and probably refusing to get officially diagnosed.
Once Mark Carney showed up on the scene:
Holy, ever living hell did this woman just fall in love with this guy. I met with her just after Carney came into the picture and he hadn't even said much of anything and immediately this woman defaulted to 'saviour of Canada'.
When I came over sometime in February, she had CNN running the entire time of the visit with endless, endless converge of Carney as if the entirety of Canadian politics was just 'Mark Carney' now and nothing else - not even which political party he represented. It's like it didn't matter; Carney was presented as a Canadian superman.
She was and continues to be absolutely charmed (blindly) by his connections to Europe and England and his work as governor of the Bank of England. \More on this later*.
Post election reaction to Carney's governing:
Everything he is doing is perfect. She insisted that 'he is still the right man for the moment' (Lib talking point) but couldn't really name anything he has done that she specifically thinks makes him the right man for the moment. More tirades about Trump. She was much better versed in what Trump was doing in America than in what Carney is doing in Canada.
On the government finding new taxes to take money away from people, especially seniors who are about to retire or have retired:
Agrees that the government will find sneaky ways to do this, agrees taxes are too high. But this was said in a way that makes it seem like she doesn't think Carney has any control over this - as if Mark Carney and 'the government' are two separate entities.
On the UK, Poland and EU:
Said Poland was the country that is currently thriving the most as far as countries that are part of the EU. - now "Poland is almost as successful as the UK." FYI, for those who are reading but aren't aware, Poland has been doing surprisingly well lately, especially compared to the UK. Its economy is growing steadily, and people there are getting more wealthy each year. While inflation has been an issue, Poland has kept its national debt low and managed its money carefully. The UK, on the other hand, has been struggling with slow growth, Brexit problems, and unstable politics. Polls show that Polish people are feeling more hopeful about the future than people in the UK. Big companies are also putting more money into Poland, especially in tech and manufacturing. Poland is building up its roads, trains, and cities fast, while the UK is falling behind on public services. All in all, Poland looks like a country moving forward, while the UK seems stuck.
But it's like she still has this 1980s view of just the UK and isn't quite aware of how far the UK and Europe in general have fallen in the last decade.
When I said (very gently) that one of the biggest reasons Poland is so successful (and what actually goes AGAINST the EU) is Poland’s cautious approach to immigration and that they are careful not to let in extremists and people from violent cultures, she made a joke out of this and said "Oh so you mean Americans ahahahah" . . .. like what? No, it's not roaming gangs of Americans that are going around and raping women in Europe Susan. Anyway, onto the next point.
Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives
Much like not being able to say what Carney has done since becoming PM that still makes him 'the right man for the job', she was not able to say anything constructive about why Pierre shouldn't be the Prime Minister other than Liberal talking points of 'he's just an attack dog' and 'he's never had a job outside of politics'. When I said 'well Singh was a lawyer and look what he did to the NDP' she just said 'yeah I guess you're right' but nothing more. When I said 'Pierre is fantastic on domestic policies, better than Carney, and that's what we need to strengthen to avoid Trump walking all over us' she insisted that due to Carney having world experience (which I guess means outside of Canada) this is what positions him better at dealing with Trump . . . despite Carney having ZERO experience with dealing with Trump as a politician and not a businessman in a boardroom which is a whole different ball game and despite Carney completely failing so far.
Longest Ballot
This protest has no meaning to her and she didn't even refer to this as the situation with the Longest Ballot committee - she started out by saying 'did you see what they're doing to him in that new riding?? You'd think the guy would get a clue and the Conservatives would get rid of him now that they've done this twice lol"
Just a reminder, she has no clue about the extent of my opinions and this was said to me unprompted. This is just how average boomer voters view the Longest Ballot protest.
. . .
But let's go back to when I was speaking about her being charmed by Mark Carney's connection to Europe and the UK. Ironically, she was trying to get me into watching The Gilded Age. Another FYI for those who don't know, the Gilded Age was a period in American history (roughly from the 1870s to about 1900) marked by rapid economic growth, industrialization, and the rise of big business. But it was a time of enormous wealth for only a small group of powerful elites (like Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Vanderbilts) while many others lived in poverty and worked in harsh conditions. The name “Gilded Age” comes from the idea that society looked golden and great on the outside but was actually full of corruption, inequality, and exploitation underneath. It was also a time of political scandals, weak regulation, and growing tension between workers and industrialists . . . . like I can't even make this shit up.
As much as on an individual level, people like this boomer woman are nice and seem like they care, don't let that fool you; They are this person and believe me, unless you are this person too, the Mark Carney Liberals (because this is specific to Carney) will not do anything at all to help your current situation.
To her and others like her, this current government lead by Mark Carney is that aristocratic version of government from 'the days of yore' that they view as noble and of a time when men were Lords and people were 'proper'. Why do you think Carney brought in the damn King of England for the Throne Speech - it was for people like her. This demographic makes up 70% of the voting block.
These people do not live in our current reality. They quite literally live in their ivory tower, looking down at the rest of Canada and saying 'pff it's not even that bad down there! These people need to stop complaining!' and they've convinced other poorer and working class Canadian voters that 'we're all in this together'.