When Common Sense Dies A Nation Dies With It

When Common Sense Dies A Nation Dies With It By Dale Jodoin Journalist and Columnist Some mornings I sit with my coffee and wonder how the world slipped so far off its track. It did not happen in one big moment. It happened in small steps until regular people woke up and felt like strangers in their own country. The pressure grew. The rules changed. The words changed. And the truth started to feel like something you had to hide. When I grew up, the big fear was nuclear war. It was a real worry, but at least people spoke honestly about it. At least you knew what the threat was. Today the fear comes in soft waves. Every few years someone says the world will end in five years. They repeat it to kids who barely understand life yet. You cannot grow hope on fear. You cannot build a strong country on doom. Kids today do not have the anchors we had. We had parents who worked hard. We had grandparents who carried old lessons. We had aunts and uncles who taught us how to stand up and make our own way. How many young people only hear warnings? They hear that everything is broken. They hear that nothing will get better. They hear that the climate is falling apart and that they might not have a future. It leaves them empty. While this fear fills the air, the Liberals and NDP tell people to trust them. They promise that more spending will fix everything. More programs. More rules. More taxes. They treat the country like a bank card that never runs out. But money always runs out. Bills always show up. And regular families always pay in the end. People feel this every day. At the grocery store. With rent. With gas. With heat. They feel it when taxes climb while services fall apart. They feel it when the government says everything is fine even though nothing feels fine. Leaders keep saying this is progress, but nobody living a regular life agrees. And underneath it all there is a message. Keep quiet. Do not speak up. Do not question anything. If you protect your family, people call you selfish. If you point out a problem, people say you are dangerous. If you disagree with a popular idea, they use names as weapons. They use fear to control the conversation. This pressure hits young men the hardest. Many grow up hearing that everything wrong in the world is their fault. Some are told they should stop being who they are. They are confused before they even start their lives. They feel like they have to apologize for being born. It wears them down. At the same time, the government keeps bringing in more people who also need help. This is not an attack on newcomers. It is simple math. If a boat is sinking you cannot load more passengers on it. But the Liberals and NDP do it anyway because it looks good in a headline. They ignore the fact that hospitals are full, housing is gone, and schools are stretched thin. They want to be seen as kind, even if the country snaps under the weight. University was supposed to teach young adults how to think. How many walk in hopeful and walk out bitter. They come home speaking like the country is an enemy. They talk about ripping everything down and building something new with ideas that never worked anywhere else. It is not learning. It is training. And it leaves them lost. Hate has also grown in ways many older people never expected. The sudden rise in hostility toward Jewish Canadians and Jewish people around the world has shocked those who remember real history. They thought the world had learned. Now they watch crowds chant angry things while leaders stand back and mumble. It shakes something deep in the soul. And through all of this, regular people are just trying to survive. They wake up tired. They go to work. They try to raise kids in a world that feels loud and mean. They try to stay out of trouble. But every step feels like thin ice. If they speak up, someone attacks them. If they stay silent, nothing gets better. This is where your line fits, Dale. A country cannot find itself if the people inside it are too scared to tell the loud confused voices to sit down. We have people now who try to kill common sense on purpose. They twist words. They spread lies. They demand we stop thinking. And if you dare to use your own mind they beat you with nonsense until you doubt your own eyes. It reminds me of a poet I like. If a boy with a simple slingshot can stay calm, the world can bend. A whisper is enough to set people free if they hold on to it long enough. So what do we do when the country feels like it is heading into a fog. The answer is not smooth. It is not pretty. But it is simple. People need to vote for someone who will do the hard work. Not someone who makes us feel good. Not someone who hands out money we do not have. A leader who tightens the belt. A leader who says no to public unions when needed. A leader who puts the country first instead of politics. It will upset people. It always does when someone tries to clean up a house that has been ignored. But if we keep going the way we are, nothing will improve. Kids need hope again. Families need stability again. The country needs a spine again. The world is loud right now. It tells people to sit down. It tells them to obey. It tells them to stop thinking. But a country cannot survive if the people inside it feel unwanted. Canada cannot grow strong if its citizens are treated like problems. Real change starts with a whisper. A simple voice saying I want a life that makes sense again. That is how a country finds itself.