Adler’s Senate appointment a head-scratcher for many

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This article was published 21/08/2024 (633 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is not often a federal government appoints someone to the Senate only to find members of their own party crying foul. But that’s what is happening here among Manitoba Liberals in the wake of radio host Charles Adler’s appointment to the upper chamber.

Adler and Saskatchewan health-care executive Traci Muggli were unveiled Saturday as the latest appointments to the Senate. It did not take long for the news to make waves in the local Liberal-verse.

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, Manitoba’s senior government MP, broke ranks to give his frank assessment.

“There are many eminently qualified Manitobans who are better suited to represent our province than Charles Adler,” Vandal said in a terse but unambiguous statement.

In an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press — where he had recently served as a columnist — Adler said he was shocked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would tap him for Senate duty.

Appointments are officially made by the governor general on advice of the prime minister who, in turn, relies on an independent and non-partisan advisory board.

“If someone had told me in the days (at CJOB) when I was doing my commentary, or my monologues — some people would say my rants — that, ‘A Liberal prime minister one day will confer this sort of honour on you,’ I would think that they’re either insane or drinking,” Adler said.

That is not far from how some senior Liberals in this province feel right now; when contacted, some suggested that Adler’s appointment had shaken confidence in Trudeau and the Prime Minister’s Office at a time when both are under siege and facing the prospect of an electoral thrashing at the hands of the Conservatives.

“It’s certainly not being greeted in a positive way by the Liberal community here in Manitoba,” said one well-connected Grit who has been involved in many federal and provincial campaigns.

Why are local Liberals so rankled?

For an answer, I will recount some of the experiences I had way back in the day as one of a stable of local reporters invited on his radio and television shows.

For the most part, Adler was entertaining and respectful of journalists such as me, who were clearly not right-of-centre. Over time, however, I began to see a man who was masterful at building a populist, right-wing following by running right up to, but not over, the line between offensive and defensible.

Adler had little sympathy or patience for the protestations of Indigenous people, feminists or most left-of-centre special interests. He was a fan of smaller government, hardline fiscal conservatism and thought climate change was a bit of a fad.

In one particularly memorable CJOB show, Adler went on an animated rant about First Nations reserves and the chiefs and councils that were governing them. He referred to people who accused him of being racist as “boneheads” and reserves as “ghettos” and “dictatorships.”

Shannon Sampert, a former University of Winnipeg political scientist and occasional opinion writer for the Free Press, wrote a 2012 academic article about Adler’s rhetoric on feminism and women’s issues. She documented Adler’s nuanced approach to populist issues, where he would ask provocative questions and then allow a roster of far right-wing commentators to run amok.

In a 2011 radio show, Adler was discussing diversity initiatives with a guest who was very much an opponent.

“Well, do you think we’ll ever get to a point where, when people apply for a job — whether it’s a small company, big company — where they won’t have to be asked whether or not they’re white, a visible minority, etc., etc., etc.

“You know, because as I said … it’s a sad thing; as a Canadian we get labelled as livestock.”

Sampert put it best with this analysis of Adler’s modus operandi: “As Mark Twain has said, Adler never lets the facts get in the way of a good story, particularly a good story that highlights his perception that ‘real’ Canadians are in a struggle for power with special-interests groups.”

However, starting in 2015, Adler told people he had grown disillusioned with the tone of Canadian conservatism.

He got into dust-ups with high-profile right-wing political leaders, including former Alberta premier Jason Kenney, current Premier Danielle Smith and former federal Tory leader Andrew Scheer.

He has disowned the social conservatism espoused by current federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

In 2019, he penned a commentary in the Huffington Post that attempted to explain his conversion, entitled “My Politics Didn’t Move to the Centre. The Conservative Party Took a Hard Right.”

Adler claimed he had always been “hopelessly egalitarian” and a enthusiastic supporter of human rights, women’s rights and LGBTTQ+ rights. He claimed former prime minister Stephen Harper invited in “social conservatives who were the polar opposites of what I cherished the most about Canada.”

It is true that social conservatism started creeping into Tory policies during the Harper era, laying the groundwork for Poilievre’s current embrace of far-right rhetoric. However, what doesn’t track is Adler’s claim that it was conservatism, and not him, that changed.

The policies and rhetoric being used by current edition of the Tory party are not inconsistent with the messaging he sent to Adler Nation; Poilievre’s rantings are an extension of what Adler and his guests said.

It’s not bad for journalists to change their opinions. We should be committed lifelong learners and, if our positions change, so be it.

However, if the change in our world view is dramatic, we have a professional obligation to acknowledge and explain the change.

And, if we were really wrong in an earlier commentary, we need to apologize. What we cannot do is try to claim that it was the world, and not our opinions, that really changed.

Canada’s newest senator can wax poetic about the noble conversion he experienced on the road to the Senate, but most Manitobans know he is and will always be the spiritual leader of Adler Nation.

» Dan Lett is a Winnipeg Free Press columnist. This column previously ran in the Free Press.