The Handmaid’s Tale Wasn’t Supposed to Be a Plan for Canada's Future

If you don’t want the red robes, maybe stop ignoring the birth rate collapse right in front of you.

We’ll subsidize billion-dollar battery plants, but not babies. What does that say about our priorities?

If you can’t start a family, you don’t have a choice—you have a crisis.

Sky-high rents, stalled wages, and no village left. Why is nobody talking about this as what it eventually will be — a baby crisis?

In this post, I’m pulling passages from Melanie Paradis’ clear wake-up call posted this morning after the Liberal media machine dog-piled on Pierre Poilievre for talking about bithrates and biological clocks in Canada. She argues in her essay that the Liberals have a huge blindspot on an issue that is intensely important to millions of young Canadians ... they want more children.

This is not a discussion from which you can exclude half the population of the country. Families, babies, and households in whatever shape they take are the future of the nation. And the future is nearer than we often imagine. Every single person you know today will either be gone or in need of some substantial support within 80 years. The present is the fruit of the past and the seed of the future. We need babies. Lots of them. Healthy, happy, hope-filled new humans.

Our task is to continue building the foundation of the future. No matter what the concerns of the day, some substantial portion of our thinking should be given over to the rising generation and the shape of things to come. Immigration will not solve this issue — immigrants put in the same situation as us will struggle with the same family and baby issues. It’s also been proven in many countries that there is no quick fix, easy way to build a future generation. Humans, like any other animal, are not going to settle and reproduce while under certain kinds of stresses and threats.

How big is this issue relative to the other headlines that flash around us today? Nothing is more important than the shape of things to come or the needs of the next generation.

The legacy of the past and of human destiny is our story, not the trivialities of today. Our enemy is not Donald Trump, Pierre Poilievre, China, or Russia. Our enemy is being detached from the kind of concern for the rights of unborn legions that will enable the world itself to become connected and whole.

To struggle against these enemies, and against apathy and mediocrity, is to find the purpose of life.

Melanie has written out what I hear over and over from the women in my life, especially immigrant women. I’m quoting her essay and length here and posting a link to her great Substack — The Line.

Also, on a purely Logic-based note, the Liberal’s position is: Genetic Fallacy

This is when you dismiss an idea solely based on its origin (e.g., “That idea came from a political party I hate, so it must be wrong”), rather than judging the idea itself.

So if the rejection is based on the source of the idea (a person or group), and not the substance, you’re looking at a classic logical slip-up — one that feels satisfying but doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

The untold story of Trump’s tariffs and threats is that the quiet collapse of Canada’s birth rate will only worsen. Nothing kills the mood or your hormonal balance quite like Trump.

Poilievre is the only politician in this campaign who is speaking openly and clearly about a real issue that is radicalizing young Canadians: it has become far, far too hard to start and support a family in this country, and that is obviously a burden that lands entirely on the young. Given the demographics of the average Liberal voter, I can get why this would be below the radar for the party, but I’m begging them, and setting politics aside when I do, to stop viewing this as a moment to launch a political attack on your rival and instead ask if this is actually a national issue that we should be talking about more, not less. Even if the politician happens to be a man.

To my Liberal friends: You are punching down on hurting people when you dismiss this issue, and since this might matter to you more, you’re hurting your electoral chances, too. Your party has a blindspot here, and the issue is too important to become a partisan football. Like, my dudes, for all your stupid rhetoric about The Handmaid’s Tale, have you read the damn book? It starts with a fertility crisis and birth rate collapse. If you don’t want the red capes, maybe we should get out in front of the issue?

Melanie Paradis: Poilievre was right to bring up my biological clock

The ability to choose to start or grow a family isn’t just about rights, it’s about reality. If people want children but can’t afford them, can’t access fertility care, and can’t find housing — it’s not freedom. It’s abject failure.

This country treats parenting like a private hobby, not a public priority.

So let’s make it one. Let’s build policies that rebuild the village.

If we really care about our future, we need to create a country where having a child is possible, supported, and even joyful. We need to treat families like the national asset they are.

Because here’s the thing: we’ve bailed out airlines and banks and battery plants. We’ve written big cheques for big business. When are we going to write one for the people who are actually creating new Canadians? Can I gently suggest that one of our major parties should be thinking about that, and not how to best dunk on the male politician who dared to raise an issue that is keeping millions of young Canadians awake at night?