Carney’s agenda so far has been one defined by austerity, tighter immigration and border controls, and the expansion of policing and militarism. But the issue most likely to provoke sustained and intense backlash—and to rupture Canadian liberalism—is Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, which passed in June. C-5 allows the federal government to exempt so-called “nation-building” projects of its choosing from environmental review. According to most legal interpretations, it will also allow the government to bypass requirements for Indigenous consultation, let alone consent. When I say liberalism here, I mean the central political philosophy underpinning what are commonly called “Western” democracies. Rooted in Enlightenment-era thinking, liberalism positions individual political rights and equality as the foundation of a free and just society. In principle, it’s appealing—but in practice, it has always been marked by a yawning gap between its aspirational ideals of universalism and its deeply unequal, often genocidal, reality.